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The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has appealed to International Cricket Council (ICC) over the ‘poor’ rating given to Indore pitch on March 3. India hosted Australia at Holkar Cricket Stadium for the third Test of the recently concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023. Australia won the match by nine wickets to register their first win after losing the first two matches of the four-match series.

The match in Indore ended in just three days, which led match referee Chris Broad to give a  ‘poor’ rating to the pitch and three demerit points. According to ICC rules, “when a venue accumulates five demerit points (or crosses that threshold), it will be suspended from hosting any international cricket for a period of 12 months, while a venue will be suspended from staging any international cricket for 24 months when it reaches the threshold of 10 demerit points.”

ICC revealed the referee’s verdict on March 3 and it was reported that both captains Rohit Sharma and Steve Smith were in an agreement over the decision.

“The pitch, which was very dry, did not provide a balance between bat and ball, favouring spinners from the start. The fifth ball of the match broke through the pitch surface and continued to occasionally break the surface providing little or no seam movement and there was excessive and uneven bounce throughout the match,” Broad was quoted as saying by the ICC.  

Meanwhile, according to a Cricbuzz report, a BCCI source has confirmed that the appeal was always on the card as the referee’s verdict came in haste, just hours after the match ended.

ICC’s two-member committee will now review the referee’s assessment and will take a final call within 14 days. The former Indian captain and BCCI President Sourav Ganguly is the chairman of the Cricket Committee while Pakistan’s Wasim Khan is the General Manager. However, due to Ganguly’s past connection with the BCCI, the committee might name someone else to review the assessment.