What world cricket badly needs today is tough challenging pitches all over the world. Pitches all around the world have been sobered down to cater to the wider audience who enjoys big run fests and boundaries galore. One of the biggest side effects of this change has been that the batsmen now take it for granted that pitches will be easy to bat on without much challenge. Which is why every time team play on a challenging pitch, more often than not sided get rolled over. People blame the pitches for test matches not lasting long but dont really see the reasoning behind it. Batsmen today are just not capable of handling tough pitches; be it excessive swing, spin or bounce. Home team are also worried about preparing tough pitches as they are not sure their own team will be able to last on it.
I strongly feel that the need of the hour is tough challenging pitches to bring back the skill element of the game. Looking at pitches today, I cant imagine what inspires young players to become a bowler! A change is needed. Which is why every country should prepare pitches which are challenging. The only country I see doing that today is NZ. I am sure weather conditions are part of the reason, but I cant remember a single pitch in NZ in recent times which was a road.