The moisture on the Wanderers track, which delayed the start of the first Test between India and South Africa in Johannesburg on Friday, was apparently due to the desperate attempt by the groundsmen to fix the cracks which they anticipated would help the Indian spinners.

Batting legend Sunil Gavaskar [Images], here as part of the television commentary team, said people often criticised the Indian pitches as being doctored but today's incident showed this is rampant.

However, an official statement said the curators were worried that the wicket might not last the full five days and were only trying to fix it up.

"At 4 pm yesterday afternoon, our groundsman Chris Scott believed that the wicket was a little too dry and was concerned that it would break up quite badly before the fourth and fifth days," it said.

To remedy the situation, he put wet hessian [coarse fabric of hemp or jute] onto the wicket overnight and then covered the wicket as is the norm. After removing the covers this morning, there was a lot more moisture on the wicket than anticipated, resulting in the delay," the statement added.

The wetness caused the start of the match to be delayed by one and a half hours. The playing hours also had to be adjusted to make up for lost time.

While India went into the match with just one spinner, South Africa opted for a five-pronged pace attack.