The answer to the National Sports Centre's problematic cricket pitch lies not with the importation of foreign clay but more with nature's very own binding conductor - earth worms.

That's the firm opinion of top local groundsman Sheridan Raynor who remains steadfast in his belief that worms can put an end to the ongoing concerns at the Frog Lane, Devonshire, facility.

Reiterating the important role that worms play in the binding process of clay, Raynor said: “What occurs with clay over here is after a certain amount of time the sun, salt and rain remove all of the binding agents. The good binding agents settle on the bottom of the surface while the upper layer of clay is exposed to the elements.

“But worms will bring the binding agents back to the surface and then when you top dress the wicket by an inch or so, it's fine.

“The wicket doesn't have anything to turn the clay over and even if we were to bring in clay from another country a similar thing would happen if you don't have worm cast.

“The Sports Centre is the only wicket on the Island that doesn't have worms on it. All of the other club wickets have them and that's why they don't have any problems.”

Last week International Cricket Council (ICC) chief pitch consultant Andy Atkinson recommended Government import foreign clay, claiming that local clay was not suitable for producing pitches of international standard.

Raynor disagreed, attributing problems encountered earlier this year at the NSC to an inadequately top dressed square prior to this summer's tours.

“The last time that pitch (NSC) had been top dressed was about 18 months ago just before the West Indies arrived here (in 2003),” he said.

“I top dressed almost the entire square with fresh clay and Trevor (NSC superintendent Trevor Madeiros) and his staff produced an excellent strip up there and Brian Lara (West Indies skipper) even commended them for doing an excellent job.

“But after their departure nothing was done to the pitch as far as dressing it with new clay. And by not doing that - and because it doesn't have any worms to turn the clay over - the clay that had been there for nearly two years had deteriorated from the elements. And at that stage it wouldn't have mattered who went up there to prepare that wicket, the result would have been the same because all the binding agents had gone out of the clay.

“They (NSC staff) only put a skim coat of clay on the pitch (prior to this summer) and you can't top dress a square with anything less than an inch of clay because it just wouldn't bind with the old surface or last longer than two months at the most.

“If you only put a quarter of an inch of clay on top of an old surface then once the two surfaces dry between each other they begin to separate and when the ball drops onto it, it tends to break up.”

Raynor added that until the NSC's pitch had worms, the surface would have to be top dressed on an annual basis as is the case with club grounds across the Island.

“All that wicket at the National Sports Centre needs is worm cast,” he repeated. “And I don't really think it needs to be resurfaced.”

Raynor, who assisted in pitch preparations at Jamaica's Sabina Park in 1971 for the Test series involving Jamaica and Australia, also dismissed Atkinson's recommendation that Government import rye grass for the NSC's pitch.

Rye grass, he said, would not survive the Island's peak summer months.

“In fact, it wouldn't even survive past the month of June,” added the former top all-rounder.

Government are currently awaiting Atkinson's final assessment on the NSC pitch before deciding what course of action to take in the future..