Aussies get the dirt on Indian spin

SYDNEY, June 5 (AFP): Cricket Australia will import soil from India to build sub-continental style pitches to help their batsmen prepare for playing against spin, a report said Thursday.
The outdoor pitches will be laid near the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane to create low-bouncing tracks that will allow batsmen and bowlers to prepare at home for tours of India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
The top-ranked Australians have traditionally struggled against spin on the sub-continent, and team performance manager Pat Howard said CA wanted the pitches in place by the end of the Australian summer using Indian soil.
"A third of all our matches are on the sub-continent, so you've got to be able to deal with it," he told Fairfax Media, adding the imported soil idea had been long under discussion.
"Whilst we do practise here against spin, we know it's not as real as being there. We're never going to make it exactly the same but we're going to try to get as close as we can," Howard said.