ENGLAND VS WESTINDIES 4th TEST:Strauss blames pitch for 'boring draw'

England cricket captain Andrew Strauss expressed his total frustration after a boring draw killed his dream of winning his first series.The skipper was helpless to prevent his bowlers being neutralised by the “deadest turf in the world,” The Sun reported.The Fourth Test produced the astronomical total of 1,628 runs for just 17 wickets - an unacceptably warped balance between bat and ball.“My opinion is this sort of match is not what we want to see in Test cricket. That wicket remained flat throughout the game — if anything, it was flatter today than on any day. As cricketers, you want to see wickets that deteriorate. But that didn’t happen here and, as a result, it ended up a boring draw,” Strauss said.“I don’t know much about how wickets are prepared, but there seems to be a will on the part of administrators for Test matches to go five days. As players, we all want to see result wickets that are fair. They produce the best cricket.“Even if you can’t force a result, you need to have a tight tussle — like in Antigua last week, where we were one wicket away from forcing a result,” he said.“There were eight, nine or 10 bowlers operating on this surface and nobody looked that threatening. I wouldn’t blame the quality of bowling — I think our bowlers toiled exceptionally well and showed a lot of control,” Strauss added.There have been several games like this across the world in recent weeks — especially in Pakistan, where there have been a host of single, double and triple centuries.Some people blame the pitches, others claim the standard of bowling has worsened. Paul Collingwood’s theory is that the balls go soft too quickly.