Kunal Pradhan, writing in the Indian Express, places the blame for India's problem with poor pitches on those on the upper end of the hierarchy. He says there is too much apprehension over what the track might throw up and how it may affect the home team's chances, leading the groundsmen to overcompensate one way or the other. The solution, he writes, must be the absence of any interference from the board, greater accountability and investment in greater education and research in the science of pitch-making.

In most other countries, being a pitch curator is a career option. You decide early, study the science behind the art, and spend time as an assistant before the ground is finally handed over to you. The job ensures enough money for a home and a car, and the responsibility that what you are producing is yours alone — no instructions from the board’s head honchos, no suggestions from the team’s captain, and no unreasonable last-minute requests from a spinner or an opening batsman that can’t be turned down.

Batsmen have got so used to having everything in their favour – the tracks were such featherbeds throughout this series – that they probably felt cheated at the Kotla. Had the series been even or the Sri Lankan score at 83 for one, would the game have been called off with such alacrity? Suresh Menon attempts to answer the question on Dreamcricket.com.

An editorial in the Indian Express says Indian cricket will continue to suffer until the BCCI stops behaving like a relic of the amateur age.

Another in Kolkata's Telegraph says that the BCCI cannot escape the responsibility for the mess even though the local association is actually responsible for preparing the pitch.

Mike Atherton joins the chorus demanding the end of lifeless pitches. He writes in the Times that the most dramatic moment in cricket - the fall of a wicket - is something the game is forgetting all too quickly.

When the game offers no result — no chance of a result, more importantly — no fluctuating fortunes, no interest and no drama, what else but dry statistics is there to talk about?

What the ICC’s press release should have said, of course, was that the umpires and the match referee had marked the Ahmedabad pitch down as unacceptably poor and that the groundsman’s penalty would be a period without international cricket.