To add further the bias exists against Asian pitches in general, and that baffles me. An Asian wicket is expected to adhere to strict norms about what is considered, ideal and any deviation from the norm and the Asian pitch faces all kinds of criticism, but a similar pitch outside Asia, is no issue.
Its clearly the case when an Asian wicket helps spinners as much as a wicket outside Asia would help Seamers. However the same is also true of flat wickets. If you get a flat wicket in Asia, the pitch is murdered by the press and experts alike, but a flat pitch outside Asia generally goes unnoticed and there is barely any comment made.
The perfect example was the wicket for the first test between Pakistan and England UAE. There was a lot of criticism of it and people called it a road, could land a plane on that etc. etc. However just days later, Aus NZ play a test in Perth on an even more road of a wicket, and people couldn't stop gushing about the runs that were scored on it.
Where this general bias against Asian pitches comes from I have no idea. An Asian wicket gets murdered for any deviation from some imaginary straight jacket rules some people have made about pitches, while pitches outside the sub-continent can flog those same rules at will and no one notices, and if anything, people go out of their way to put a positive spin on that deviation for pitches outside Asia.
Its sad but there it is.
