Gujarat Titans COO: ‘No IPL franchise has any right to say, I want this kind of a pitch’ | Cricket News

Gujarat Titans COO Colonel Arvinder Singh.

In football, home advantage counts for a lot. The hosts are aware of the pitch, the stadium, and enjoy local support which plays a big part in swaying the referees and creating hostile environments for the visitors.
In cricket, especially franchise cricket such as the Indian Premier League (IPL), that isn’t necessarily the case. The teams can’t dictate the make-up of the surface but the other tangibles remain the same: fans, understanding the conditions and the dimensions of the stadium. These are all aspects that the home teams are expected to know more than the visiting sides.

Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) were one of the teams that made the most of home conditions in their title run. They, alongside Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Delhi Capitals (DC) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), won five home matches last season. Last year, as Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) reeled off six straight wins to qualify for the playoffs, three of them came at home.
This season, plenty has been made of lack of home advantage. KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane, Lucknow Super Giants mentor Zaheer Khan and CSK coach Stephen Fleming have been the loudest voices against curators not preparing surfaces suitable for the home teams. PBKS assistant bowling coach Trevor Gonsalves argued, “there is no home advantage in the IPL.”
When probed about the franchise vs curator debate, Gujarat Titans COO Colonel Arvinder Singh told TimesofIndia.com, “Look, the rules and regulations on this are very clear and not just from this season. They’ve been clear right from the very beginning.”
“The rules of the game are very clear and they are common for everybody. No franchise has any right to say, ‘I want this kind of a pitch’. That’s not something that the rules allow you to do.”

“The home advantage has to stem from the fact that that is your home. You are supposed to know those conditions better than anybody else who’s coming because that is where you play most of your games, where you practice. So from that perspective, if you’re looking at a home advantage, well, why not? You deserve all the home advantage that you can take.
“To say that I need home advantage because I want this kind of a pitch. Sorry, I don’t think that cuts any ice with anybody,” he added.
The IPL Playing Conditions back Singh’s argument. As per ‘The Match’ definitions, section 1.11 reads, “Ground Authority is the entity responsible for the selection and preparation of the pitch and other functions relating to the hosting and management of the match, including any agents acting on their behalf (including but not limited to the curator or other ground staff).”
For the record, the 2022 champions have made a promising start at their home venue in Narendra Modi Stadium, winning two of three played so far.

Zoom out even further and GT have been stellar with the season 24 matches through. They’ve posted four wins out of five played, pocketed eight points, and sit top of the pile as things stand.
With former IPL champions such as five-time winners CSK and MI struggling alongside SRH, KKR and RR, GT are the only former champions who haven’t lost the plot in the 18th season.
“I think it’s still early days. By God’s grace, yes we have done well thus far, but there’s still a long way to go. It’s a long drawn tournament. So we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves and start thinking of the playoffs already. There’s a long way to go and we need to win more games,” said Col. Singh.
“It’s not easy to get to the top four and be there consistently. Some teams continue the same momentum throughout and some teams start early, but are not able to sustain that momentum. And then you suddenly find somebody coming through, like what happened with RCB last year.
“So it’s too early to discount anything and say that any former champion or even those who have not been champions are out of the race this early in the tournament,” he added.
‘Gill going to hold us in good stead’
In his opening season as GT captain last year, Shubman Gill had a challenging start. Having taken over from Hardik Pandya, GT finished eighth in IPL 2024. The decision to appoint Gill as captain raised eyebrows, especially considering the fact that he had led his state side Punjab in only two matches. To make matters worse for the top-order batter, runs dried up too.
Early days in IPL 2025 but the team has looked promising with Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler, Sai Kishore, Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna all making an impact.

Col. Singh feels vindicated with his, and the management’s, choice of backing Gill when not many held that enthusiasm.
“It is his coming of age now as a leader more than a captain. You can see it in his body language, the control, whether it’s the strategy that he’s adopting, whether he’s reacting to situations on ground. It’s amazing to see how young Shubman has developed into a leader of the pack and still being able to be one of the finest players as far as GT is concerned,” said the franchise COO of Gill who has scored 148 runs in five innings this season at a strike rate of 146.53.
“So it is amazing to see his growth. We have always said that at GT we like to do things from a longer-term perspective and not look at short-term solutions. So last time we were criticised a little bit to say that, you know, it’s too early for him (to captain) and there were other options available. But you’re always looking at it from a longer-term perspective, you know, and I think we can happily say that that decision was a good decision and it’s going to hold us in good stead over a number of years going forward,” he explained further.
Way forward
With an eye always on the long-term picture, GT plan on recalibrating after the season ends to devise a growth strategy, such as a potential Women’s Premier League (WPL) team.
Ahmedabad-based Torrent Group, a healthcare major, had acquired a majority 67 per cent stake in GT before the season began. While the specifics of the deal were not made official, the figure is expected to highlight the growth of the franchises and IPL by extension.
As per reports, CVC had bought GT in 2021 for Rs 5,625 crore. For the majority acquisition, Torrent Group is believed to have spent Rs 5025 crore which takes GT’s valuation at Rs 7500 crore.

It is in keeping with the growth story of the IPL, which has grown faster than Gold and the Sensex since its inception in 2008.
“When we started out in 2008, nobody knew how it was going to pan out. It took more than a couple of years for IPL to kind of realise its potential,” said Col. Singh who has been part of Kings XI Punjab, Gujarat Lions and Gujarat Titans during his various IPL stints.
“It was only after the fourth or fifth year, where it was a gradual growth all along. But after the fourth year, we realised that it is the quality of cricket that is going to define the longevity of the league. It is the quality of the cricket that happens on the ground, the quality of players and the type of cricket that is showcased therein which is going to draw in eyeballs.
“At that point we realised it is something that, as Indians, we can be proud of. Today you see what it has grown into. In terms of growth, it is more than 10x (from) where it started off.
“IPL has seen its ups and downs over the number of years. But if you look at a sporting property in 17 years where nothing like this had ever happened in our country. From what it was and what it is today, I think it is something that all of us can be pretty proud of,” he concluded.