Gargi Raut at Eden Gardens
“Eden Gardens and headlines of the pitch are a match made in heaven,” is a phrase I love to use. The pitch curator Sujan Mukherjee took over headlines during the the last edition of the IPL, when he bluntly refused to produce a turning track for the Kolkata Knight Riders. He firmly stated that he will only follow the guidelines of the BCCI and not the franchise, “Ever since I have taken charge (as Eden curator), the pitches here have been like this. It was like this in the past. Things haven’t changed now, and it will not be altered in the future,” said Sujan to RevSportz.
Gautam Gambhir, the former mentor of the KKR franchise, and Sujan go a long way. Gambhir is now the head coach of the Indian team and the two are still on good terms. When it comes to the Indian team, the curator will do everything in his power to give the national team the home advantage. “The pitch should favour India. When it comes to KKR, not so much. But when it comes to the country, I will try to do whatever they request,” said Sujan ahead of the first Test.
Despite the match ending in two and a half days, the head coach defended the pitch curator publicly, “This is exactly the pitch we wanted and the curator was very very helpful.”
Today, at the final practice session of the Indian team at the Eden Gardens, as soon as Mukherjee walked in, Gambhir went over to embrace the pitch curator. At the frontline of abuse from the public, the head coach did his part to defend his ally.
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