The pitch for the Boxing Day Test between South Africa and India has received a 'satisfactory' rating from the International Cricket Council (ICC). The assessment followed criticism of the Test pitch at Newlands in Cape Town, which was deemed 'unsatisfactory' and received a demerit point.

Centurion's pitch, although not as controversial as Newlands, generated considerable discussion. The Centurion Test was completed in three days. South Africa won by an innings and 32 runs in the last session of the third day. Experts like Sunil Gavaskar argued that the wicket in the first Test was as problematic as the second Test. However, ICC's Chris Broad gave a different explanation.

ICC has recently changed the pitch and outfield rating system for an international match. A match referee can consider only four ratings - Very Good, Satisfactory, Unsatisfactory, and Unsuitable. Earlier there were six grades - very good, good, average, below average, poor, and inadequate. Centurion's pitch has been given a satisfactory rating under the new norms.

Sunil Gavaskar recently wrote in a column, "It will be most interesting to see what the Newlands pitch is rated after what turned out to be the shortest Test match ever. It would be even more interesting to see what rating the pitch at the Centurion where the first Test was played would get. Yes there were two hundreds scored on that surface but the way the ball regularly shot up from a good length was alarming indeed."