Shamik Chakrabarty at Eden Gardens
In the end, two men stood out, as Kolkata Knight Riders pulled off a humdinger against Rajasthan Royals on Sunday. Rinku Singh hogged the limelight for his fielding. Sujan Mukherjee, the Eden Gardens curator, was the unsung hero.
Rinku’s fielding exploits weren’t restricted to his final ball heroics – preventing the second run that would have taken the game to a Super Over. The southpaw was brilliant in the field throughout, saving at least 10 runs during Royals’ innings. KKR won the game by the barest of margins.
Away from the spotlight, Mukherjee must have revelled in the way the match panned out. Another excellent pitch gave 35,000 spectators, who braved the mid-summer heat to turn up for a day game, full value of their money. Interestingly, it was the same pitch that hosted KKR’s tournament opener against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, and after losing the game, the home team captain, Ajinkya Rahane, criticised the surface, asking for more purchase for his spinners. Mukherjee’s response to that on RevSportz had sparked a national debate. To put things in perspective, the curator spoke about sticking to the BCCI/IPL guidelines.
Varun Chakravarthy, the KKR spinner, came at the post-match press conference, and he had this to say about the pitch: “The pitch definitely got better in the second innings. Just one or two balls turned for me. Other than that, not much help I would say.” He added that even on a rank turner at Eden, “200 would be scored.”
Irrespective of whether the KKR camp is still smarting over the Eden pitch, Mukherjee has once again has lived up to the expectations of producing good surfaces, tailor-made for T20 cricket. This format is about serving up high-scoring close contests, and the country’s most storied venue has produced several of that kind.
When RevSportz asked Mukherjee for his reaction, on the heels of the KKR versus RR game, he credited his ground staff. “A lot of things go into preparing a good cricket pitch and credit goes to my ground staff who put in a lot of hard work, irrespective of the scorching sun or rain, throughout the year,” the curator told this website.
Mukherjee also thanked the Cricket Association Bengal. “I must speak about the support I get from my (state) association,” he said. “Without it, I couldn’t have done my job. Snehasish (CAB president Snehasish Ganguly) stands by me. Sourav (Ganguly) is always there.”
It’s a thankless job, the role of a curator. Good work is sort of taken for granted, while people speak their minds, when things don’t go their way. “After all these years, criticism doesn’t affect me,” said Mukherjee.
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