Faria played his First-Class cricket here, starting his career as a wicket-keeper who also opened the batting for Trinidad. The next 30 years following his retirement, he went around the Caribbean curating pitches for different grounds. The past eight years, he has been working at Queen's Park Oval as the pitch curator and groundsman.
Ahead of the West Indies' fourth and final Test against India at Port of Spain, Faria spoke about the pitch that the players will be playing on, on Thursday (August 18). He said that the pitch will be a true one with enough spin and turn for the spinners and will be a good one to bat on during the first three days.
First look at the pitch on Wednesday morning showed a lot of dry spots at the ends, and a good covering of grass, although much of it seemed dead.
Faria, however, said that the grass will be cut and that the pitch has not been watered much because of sudden spells of rain.
"We saw it today this morning, and we don't know if we are getting the sun. Maybe before 5 o' clock this evening we will have rain again. So you have to put the water when you want. You can't just put water and leave it there," he said, speaking to Cricbuzz.
Faria added that he has always been a batsman's groundsman and that this pitch too will help the batters. He reckoned that the first innings of both the teams should see scores of 500 and 400 respectively, but there should still be enough turn and bounce for the spinners to take advantage of.
Faria was of the opinion that the pitch will hold true for the first three days, and then, only then will the pitch show signs of deteriorating. However, he added that the pitch will give the bowlers some help on all five days.
"Within the first three days, I won't have to do anything on. No footmarks to fix and all that. (But) It will do something before the (fourth day), because this wicket usually takes a little spin," he summed up.
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