© ISLThe football pitches at Hero Indian Super League venues are going to get a complete makeover before the tournament kicks off. And the pitch expert who is going to oversee that process is Greg Gillin, currentlysenior director for stadiums in Singapore, having previously been in charge of the iconic Wembley Stadium and Melbourne Olympic Park.Gillin’s team of experts has already undertaken the task of reviewing all the playing surfaces and created an initial survey for each. From this, a playing body standard has been developed to ensure that all surfaces across the competition play similarly. The aim is to make all surfaces safe and completely even to facilitate free-flowing football.“What we found after the surveys is that a lot of these surfaces had been not maintained at all, poorly maintained or had some issues we need to rectify,” he revealed. “We looked at the individual playing surfaces at each stadium and came up with a renovation programme to bring them up to what we have classified as the professional level in accordance with FIFA.” Gillin is looking into factors such as traction, hardness and bounce and trying to manipulate them to make this consistent across the playing surface. He will also look at things like grass cover and moisture content which in turn affect the aforementioned factors. “So once the pitch is ready these are the things that we will begin to measure to achieve uniformity across the surface,” he said. Gillin has visited most of the venues where the ISL fixtures will be played.“Without repair and maintenance after games, the pitches become dangerous surfaces for players to run around on. So maintenance is absolutely the key,”Greg Gillin, Pitch expert One of the biggest issues affecting Indian stadiums is that drainage and irrigation systems do not exist, except at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata. Also, certain football specific equipment, which is not available in India, needs to be imported. But Gillin feels that the Bermuda grass that grows in most stadiums is suitable for football and there’s no need to import a different type of grass.The crucial factor is good maintenance of the pitch, whether it is being used one game a month, one game a week, or even more frequently. “Without repair and maintenance after games, the pitches become dangerous surfaces for players to run around on. So maintenance is absolutely the key,” he insisted.