ICC match referee Chris Board rates Pune pitch 'poor'; BCCI given 14 days to respond

New Delhi: After the first Test between India and Australia folded inside three days, with the hosts succumbing to a 333-run defeat against the tourists, the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Tuesday announced that Chris Broad, who was the match referee for the Pune match, has rated the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium pitch as "poor."

Broad, as per the Clause 3 of the ICC Pitch and Outfield Monitoring Process, submitted his report to the ICC, expressing concern over the quality of the pitch used for the match.

The report has been forwarded to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which now has 14 days to provide its response.

If the BCCI fail to give appropriate response, a warning and/or a fine of USD 15,000 with a directive to institute corrective measures can be handed over to the Indian board, whose response will be reviewed by ICC's General Manager Cricket, Geoff Allardice, and Ranjan Madugalle from the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees.

This is how the pitch would have looked if the game had gone down to the 5th day.

The Pune pitch on what should have been day 5 of 1st Test. Wouldn't want to be chasing more than about 37 on this #INDcAUS pic.twitter.com/KtsSrTWWo2

— Andrew Ramsey (@ARamseyCricket) February 27, 2017

The six categories that ICC gives to Test match pitches are - very good, good, above average, below average, poor and unfit.