Sport: bad pitches

Sabina Park, Jamaica - West Indies v England - 1998. The Sabina Park Test against England only lasted 61 balls before it was abandoned. Three quick wickets fell then Alec Stewart and Graham Thorpe were hit repeatedly before the umpires intervened. The match referee described the pitch as “horrific” Photograph: Matthew Ashton/EMPICS Sport/PA Photos

Newlands, Cape Town - South Africa v Pakistan - 2007. The pitch at Newlands for this series decider was so “interesting” that the Test only lasted three days, with 32 wickets going down in the first two. Sports Illustrated South Africa described the outfield as a “cabbage patch”, adding to Newlands' reputation for being a wicket that is conducive to early finishes Photograph: Gallo Images/Getty Images

Stamford Bridge - Chelsea v Charlton - 11 January 2003. You could have been forgiven for thinking Chelsea were playing Charlton on a section of Hackney marshes completely shut off from sunlight when they met in the Premier League in 2003. The pitch was so bad Charlton appealed to have the game replayed and their manager, Alan Curbishley, said the surface put him in mind of “a piece of land about to have patio laid on it”. Nonetheless it didn’t stop Chelsea putting four goals past the Addicks in a comprehensive victory Photograph: John Stillwell/PA

Last September a Bundesliga match between Eintracht Frankfurt and Karlsruhe was postponed because of damage done to the pitch by fans at a Madonna concert. “The physical safety of the players could not be assured,” explained the former German international turned administrator, Holger Hieronymus Photograph: Uwe Anspach /EPA

Luzhniki Stadium - Chelsea v Manchester United - 2008 Champions League final. Russian authorities spent nine months and £1.5m growing a top-of-the-range, high-tech grass pitch for last season’s Champions League final, to lay over the plastic one at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium. Two days after installing it they decided it looked too bumpy and imported a new one from Slovakia for £160,000 Photograph: Yuri Kochetkov/EPA

The 1967 NFL championship game between the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys became known as the Ice Bowl – the coldest NFL game on record. At one point the referee’s whistle froze to his lips and the pitch was reportedly rock hard and likened to a sheet of ice Photograph: AP

Wembley - Leeds v Wakefield - 1968 Challenge Cup final. The Wembley pitch was flooded and the game probably should not have gone ahead, but 87,000 Leeds and Wakefield Trinity fans were at the ground, so it was played. “The Watersplash Final” became a total debacle, and is famous for Trinity’s Don Fox (already voted man of the match) slipping to miss an easy match-winning conversion with the game's last kick. Cue Eddie Waring’s famous lament: “Poor lad" Photograph: Hulton Collection/Getty

Wembley - Leeds v Chelsea - 1970 FA Cup final. One of the worst pitches ever was at Wembley for the 1970 FA Cup final between Leeds and Chelsea which resembled a rutted field. The match ended in a draw but many players suffered from cramp and complained about the porridgey surface caused by the holding of the horse of the year show on the sodden surface the week before Photograph: Victor Drees/Getty Images

Millennium Stadium, Cardiff - Wales v England - 2005 Six Nations. From its opening in 1999 to February 2003 the Millennium Stadium pitch was relaid eight times at a cost of £120,000 a pop. Root knot nematodes, bad weather and the microclimate affected by keeping the roof closed were all blamed. It was still a problem in 2005 for the Six Nations game against England when, from the first minute, huge divots appeared and scrums slid on the “floating pallets of grass” which had not knitted together. Footing was a problem throughout the match Photograph: David Rogers/Getty Images

Ohene Djan Stadium, Accra - Ghana 2-1 Guinea - 2008 Africa Cup of Nations. The grass was ridiculously long, making dribbling and passing a problem. The state of the pitch alarmed Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, so much that he has suggested that future Africa Cup of Nations should take place on artificial turf. The coach of the host nation Ghana, Claude Le Roy, compared it to a potato field. The impact of contrasting rainy and dry seasons is often blamed for the poor state of African pitches Photograph: Abdelhak Senna/AFP/Getty Images