Pitch queered, BCCI goes to sleep

India's hopes of a revival in its pace fortunes have taken a serious hit. The BCCI’s Ground and Wickets Committee chairman G Kasturiran...

India’s hopes of a revival in its pace fortunes have taken a serious hit. The BCCI’s Ground and Wickets Committee chairman G Kasturirangan, who was leading the much-hyped Green Revolution that promised faster pitches across the country, has resigned.

But, strangely the matter has been kept a closely-guarded secret by BCCI for over three weeks since Kasturirangan had put in his papers. Even the Working Committee, which met in New Delhi early this month and had accepted his resignation, has not said a word about it to the media.


Panel chief Kasturirangan; (R) BCCI’s Dalmiya

BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya, when contacted by the The Indian Express, confirmed Kasturirangan’s resignation and said that ‘‘it was not an important issue that the media needed to be informed. The chairman of one of many committees of the BCCI has resigned and there’s nothing big about it.’’

The BCCI, during the launch of the Ground and Wickets Committee, had painted how faster pitches at home would go a long way in improving India’s away-record and make the domestic game competitive.

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Now the apprehensions about the promised transformation may take some time before the BCCI decides on some replacement as bowlers would continue to struggle on dead tracks. Sources close to Kasturirangan say that the noted pitch expert had resigned since he was ‘‘frustated’’ by the lackadaisical approach of the BCCI towards the perennial problem. When The Indian Express contacted Kasturirangan, all he said was, ‘‘At the age of 73 I do not wish to get embroiled in any controversies.’’ Asked if he was bitter over the state of affairs in the BCCI and whether that had triggered his resignation, Kasturirangan said, ‘‘Please keep me out of it, I want be away from all this’’.

Even as Kasturirangan has preferred to keep himself quiet on the subject, the BCCI foreign consultants on pitches have spoken out.

The New Zealand Sports Turf Institute (NZSTI) — the BCCI pitch consultant — has a few complaints. The NZSTI boss Keith McAuliffe has not heard anything from BCCI since they took the soil samples of the pitches in India. ‘‘We would like to come and conduct a workshop for the groundsman in India but we are still awaiting a directive from the BCCI,’’ said McAuliffe.

Kasturirangan, too, had a similar problem and there are many who confirm it. Curator Nadeem Memon, who was in charge of the Mumbai and Ahmedabad centres, said: ‘‘Kasturi was doing a great job, but he was not given a free hand. Unfortunately, even in an off-season like now, they have not done anything concrete.’’

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Legendary Pakistan batsman Javed Miandad in his just-published autobiography Cutting Edge has commented that: ‘‘India needs to make fast pitches if it wants to encourage the development of fast bowlers in the country. But it is an absurdly short-sighted approach (of preparing turning track) that the India’s traditional weakness — the lack of genuine pace — which keeps India from winning abroad.’’

With Kasturirangan’s resignation, it remains to be seen if India’s dubious away-record will improve.