‘BCCI curators take over’: What Ganguly said about Eden Gardens pitch after India’s disastrous fourth-innings collapse

The pitch at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata has been grabbing headlines across the cricketing world after the first Test between South Africa and India ended within two and a half days, with the home side being bundled out within a mere 93 runs in their second innings.

This was the first time the Indian Test team has failed to score 100+ runs in the fourth innings of a Test match.

Former India captain and president of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), Sourav Ganguly, has now weighed in on the controversy. In an interview with India Today, the 'Dada' of Indian cricket said that curators appointed by the BCCI take control of a pitch four days before a Test match begins.

When asked whether he himself, being a former India captain and the CAB president, gets involved in how a pitch is readied before a Test match, Ganguly said, "No, no, I don't get involved at all," adding, "Curators from the BCCI come and take over the wickets four days before the Test match. We have our own curator (Sujan Mukherjee) as well, who's done exceptionally well for a long time. The requests are made, and you keep the requests. That's what it is."

However, he did admit that the pitch was poor and that the Indian side deserved a better surface.

"It was not the greatest, I'll have to completely admit, and I think the top-order batting, the middle-order batting, you know, deserves a better cricketing surface. It was a full house at Eden Gardens for those three days, and I completely believe that Gautam Gambhir and his team in India must play on much better wickets than what they played at Eden Gardens," he told the publication.

What Eden curator, Gavaskar, Gambhir said

The Eden Gardens curator has also said that he had tried to keep the request of the captain and coach of the host side when preparing the pitch for a Test match.

India coach Gautam Gambhir has also said that there were no demons in the pitch, and that the batters should have been able to chase down the 124 runs in the fourth innings.

A similar sentiment was also shared by another Indian cricket legend, Sunil Gavaskar, when asked by India Today about the Eden pitch.

Gavaskar agreed with Gambhir's assessment and said that the Indian batters should have learnt from South Africa captain Temba Bavuma about how to bat on such tricky surfaces.