Browsing by Author "Senanayake, AIMJ"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

item: Article-Abstract
The Curious case of the Khettarama pitch
Nawagamuwa, UP; Senanayake, AIMJ; Silva, SA
During the Compaq Cup tournament in Sri Lanka in September 2009, the teams batting under lights at the R. Premadasa (Khettarama) Stadium pitch consistently found it very difficult to bat and thus lost matches. Many were of the view that the pitch was helping bowlers a lot more during the evening making it very unfair for the team batting second. This paper is based on the study which was carriedout by the authors at the request of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC)to investigate the behaviour of the.R. Premadasa Stadium (Khettarama) pitch. The study aimed to find out if there was any truth to the above claim by conducting insitu bounce tests and collecting top-dressing samples from the pitch at. regular time intervals. The test was conducted during the hours of a normal day /night One Day International match would be played at this stadium and match conditions were simulated as far as possible. The variation of bounce with time was then compared with the moisture variation through the course of duration of play to see whether there were correlations between the two. Further, a theoretical discussion based on unsaturated soil mechanics and soil science on the effect of these factors is also included for better understanding.
item: Conference-Extended-Abstract
Faster and bouncier cricket pitches using locally available clays
(2009) Nawagamuwa, UP; Senanayake, AIMJ; Silva, SA; Sanjeewa, DMI
Reasons for the lack of 'pace & bounce' in Sri Lankan pitches has been a topic of debate for a long time. In order to address this problem from an engineering perspective, soil samples from Test venue in Colombo were gathered, analyzed and then compared to available data from other countries. Local pitches were found to have high silt content, low clay content and low plasticity due to a difference in clay mineralogy. Small scale model pitches were built and then tested to find the effect of adding commercially available clays on the pitch characteristics.
item: Article-Abstract
Improvement of local soils in order to make "Fast & Bouncy" cricket pitches
Nawagamuwa, UP; Senanayake, AIMJ; Silva, SA; Senanayake, DMI
The playing character of pitches varies considerably from country to country and generally, pitches in the Indian subcontinent are regarded to be 'slow, low & dusty' in contrast to Australian or South African pitches which are 'fast & bouncy'. Sri Lankan players find it particularly hard to adapt to fast and bouncy pitches because they seldom find comparable playing conditions at home. This project tried to address this problem by investigating the possibility of improving the soils used in local cricket pitches in order to make them produce 'fast & bouncy' pitches. Data was gathered from local pitches by collecting and analyzing soil samples from Test venues in thevicinity of Colombo. This data was then compared to available data from other countries, especially Australia (due to similar climatic conditions). It was found that local pitches had high silt content, low clay content and low plasticity due to a difference in clay mineralogy when compared to Australian pitches. It was hypothesized that by reducing the silt content and improving the plasticity by the introduction of Bentonite (a clay type with very high plasticity) in to the soil would produce a faster and bouncier pitch of similar character to those in Australia. Small scale model pitches were built and then tested to find the effect the additional Bentonite on the pitch characteristics.