PHC player/coach Andre Manders and Bailey?s Bay president Stuart Hollis are at odds over the condition of the batting strip at Sea Breeze Oval.

Manders described the pitch as unfit during his team?s First Division match with Leg Trappers last weekend after fracturing his right thumb when he was struck by a Colin Scaife delivery that lifted from a ?good length?.

?That thing (pitch) was terrible. It was almost unplayable. Guys were getting hit all over the body and then I got struck and broke my finger from a ball that jumped up off a good length. And the bowler wasn?t even bowling fast,? Manders told .

Manders? worst fears were realised the next day when x-rays revealed the fracture on his right thumb.

He continued: ?I had to retire on 13 . . . an unlucky number. I did return later after being iced down. But I couldn?t even hold the bat.?

However, Bay president Hollis disagreed with the former Somerset Cup Match skipper.

?We have some of the best wickets in the Island at the moment,? he claimed. ?The wicket we are currently using is actually our practice wicket. We are using this one to allow for the other ones to catch up and then we will rotate them.

?But that?s cricket. Guys always worry about the wicket but what they really have to watch is the ball. That?s the problem with a lot of our cricketers today. They think they are experts but don?t know anything about a wicket. So what if a wicket has a little life in it . . . that helps the bowler.

?What would they prefer, wickets that only favour the batsmen. That?s unfair play because you are not giving the bowler a chance and that?s what is killing cricket in the West Indies.?

Earlier this year the Premier Division club lost promising groundsman Scott Gibbons to a road traffic accident. Gibbons was the third Bay groundsman to pass away in the last two years after the late Eugene (Josh) Smith and McDonald (Bull) Swan.

Veteran Southampton Rangers curators Sheridan and Clarence Raynor have been assisting at Bay for the past two seasons.

?Sheridan just comes down and instructs us on what to do and we go ahead and do it,? Hollis explained. ?When he comes he just cuts, rolls and marks the pitch.?

PHC, meanwhile, have yet to pick up a first league win of the season after finishing runners-up in the inaugural Kenneth (Mickey) Thompson Memorial Super Sevens Tournament late last month.

And Manders seems to think badly prepared batting strips have had a strong bearing on the reigning First Division Knockout champions? disappointing start to the season.

?We are 0-2 because we have encountered the same sort of conditions on both wickets we have played on so far. The games begin at 11 a.m. and most of the clubs are not preparing their wickets the night before,? he claimed.

?They are doing them early in the morning, watering and rolling them. You can?t do that when the game begins at 11 a.m.. We are coming to play and the groundsman is still there racing to get the wicket ready for us to play on.?