India vs England: BCCI removes Chepauk pitch curator
Following India's defeat in first Test in Chennai, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has removed its pitch curator Taposh Chatterjee. The curator was to monitor the pitch preparation at the MA Chidambaram Stadium for the second Test, starting February 13. Now, the Indian team management is overseeing the pitch preparation along with chief local groundsman V Ramesh Kumar.
It is understood that Kumar hadn't prepared a pitch even for a First-class game before doing so for the first Test. He has now been assigned the crucial task of preparing the pitch, for which black soil will be used instead of red.
The Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) confirmed the development. "Taposh has left. He was there for the first match. V Ramesh Kumar will oversee the preparation for the second Test," TNCA secretary RS Ramaswamy told IANS. Reportedly, Chatterjee of Central Zone has been tasked to oversee the preparation of pitches for the Vijay Hazare Trophy matches in Indore and Jaipur.
The BCCI panel of curators was to be reviewed and revised at the annual general meeting in December. Besides Chatterjee, there are four other curators in the elite panel. Ashish Bhowmick will prepare the Motera wicket for the third and fourth Tests. Meanwhile, Prashanth K, Sunil Chauhan, and Prakash Adhav are the others. There were five other curators in the emerging panel earlier.
Speaking on the same, a source close to development said, "It's a surprise no BCCI curator is at the spot as the BCCI sent back Taposh after the first Test when the players showed their displeasure with the way the pitch [for first Test] behaved on the first two days." "The MA Chidambaram Stadium has not had a proper curator for a long time."
The last Test held in Chennai prior to the recently-concluded first Test was also against England in 2016/17. That pitch was prepared by BCCI curator PR Viswanathan, who has retired. India put up 759/7d in that match, winning by an innings and 75 runs.
Former head of BCCI pitches and grounds committee, Daljeet Singh, explained the characters of different pitches. "If you mix soils it is difficult to predict a pitch's character. Black soil has more clay content, clay particle is the smallest in soil. The more the particles, the more water it will hold. But red soil breaks easily for spin," he said.
