'Keeps their mouth shut in India': Rohit's ferocious rant against ICC & referees for pitch hypocrisy

India defeated South Africa by 7 wickets on a difficult Newlands pitch in the 2nd Test in Cape Town. The ball was seaming, swinging, and bouncing ferociously and the batsmen fell like a pack of cards as they failed to handle the intensity of the track. Eventually, it turned out to be the shortest Test match in history as it took less than 2 days and around 642 balls to finish the match. The criticism surrounding the pitch has been immense and India captain Rohit Sharma also left no stone unturned while commenting on the double standards shown against Indian pitches compared to tracks like Newlands. 

3 things you need to know

• India beat South Africa by 7 wickets in the 2nd Test
• The match finished within 2 days and only 642 balls were bowled in the Test
• It is the shortest Test match in the history of cricket in terms of overs bowled

IND vs SA: Rohit Sharma slams ICC, calls out match referees, questions critics of Indian pitches

After winning the match, Rohit was in a belligerent mood as he slammed the foreign media, and some cricketers, called out the ICC and match referees for their bias against Indian pitches and not staying neutral in terms of rating the track in the sub-continent. Here is Rohit's full statement on the issue

"I mean, we saw what happened in this match, how the pitch played and stuff like that," Rohit said. "I honestly don't mind playing on pitches like this. As long as everyone keeps their mouth shut in India and don't talk too much about Indian pitches, honestly.

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"Because you come here [in Test cricket] to challenge yourself. Yes, it is dangerous. It is challenging. So, and when people come to India, it is again pretty challenging as well. Look, when you are here to play Test cricket, we talk about Test cricket, the ultimate prize, Test cricket being the pinnacle and stuff like that. I think it's important that we also stand by it.

“When you are put up against, a challenge like that, you come and face it. That's what happens in India, but, in India on day one, if the pitch starts turning, people start talking about 'Puff of dust! Puff of dust!' There's so much crack here on the pitch. People are not looking at that.”

Rohit then talked about the how the World Cup final pitch in Ahmedabad was rated below despite Travis Head scoring a century. 

"I think it's important that we stay neutral everywhere we go. Especially the match referees. You know, some of these match referees need to keep their eye on how they rate pitches. It's quite important.

"I still can't believe that the World Cup final pitch was rated below average. A batsman got a hundred there in the final. How can that be a poor pitch? So these are the things the ICC, the match referees, they need to look into and start rating pitches based on what they see, not based on the countries. I think that's quite important.

“So I hope they keep their ears open, they keep their eyes open and look into those aspects of the game. Honestly, I'm all for pitches like this. We want to challenge playing on pitches like this. We pride ourselves playing on pitches like this. Uh, but all I wanna say is be neutral.”

'I've seen enough of how these match referees and the ICC looks into these ratings'

Rohit continued to mention how only few overs of spin were bowled in the 2nd Test and South Africa did not bowl any overs of spin. He did not like the bias against spinning tracks.

"Honestly, I would like to see how the pitches are rated," Rohit said. "I want to see that. Whatever... that chart, I would love to see it, how they rate the pitches, because Mumbai, Bangalore, Cape Town, Centurion, all different venues, overhead conditions are different. The pitches deteriorate quite fast when the sun is beating down that hard on the pitch.

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"And in India as well, we know that the conditions in India will spin without a doubt, but obviously people don't like it because it spins from day one. But that's not the point. If the ball seams from ball one, that's okay, right, for everyone? That's not fair. The ball starts spinning from ball one, it should be okay, in my opinion.

“Otherwise, you stay neutral, and you start rating these kind of pitches also bad, because if you want the ball only to seam and not turn, in my opinion, that is absolutely wrong. So that's my judgment, that's my opinion on it. I'll stick by it because I've seen enough of cricket now and I've seen enough of how these match referees and the ICC looks into these ratings. I have no issues in how they want to rate, but stay neutral to everything that you do.”