Eden curator changed to suit Dhoni's spin fetish

Following their shock defeat at the hands of England on a Mumbai turner in the second Test, the Indian team’s eagerness to avenge the loss appears to be assuming desperate proportions.  

After the curator at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens, the venue for the December 5-9 third Test, reportedly turned down M S Dhoni’s request for a surface similar to the one that was rolled out in Mumbai, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is said to have asked the Cricket Association of Bengal to summon the services of East Zone curator Ashish Bhowmick to prepare the wicket in place of veteran Prabir Mukherjee, who has been in charge at the historic venue for decades.

While both the BCCI and the CAB maintained that it was a routine visit (by Bhowmick) to assess the pitch and the conditions before every international match, Mukherjee himself said he would not have much of a say in preparation of the track. “He (Bhowmick) is my boss as he would be overseeing my work here,” pointed out Mukherjee on Wednesday.
Even after being thrashed on a designer Wankhede track, Dhoni has been insisting on similar decks, a demand that didn’t go down well with even former India captain Rahul Dravid.

Dravid questions logic

The legendary batsman, in his post-match studio analysis after the Mumbai drubbing, had questioned Dhoni’s logic behind day-one turners. “I thought the Ahmedabad wicket was a good one. Yes, you had to work hard to get wickets, but you need to in order to win a Test. (You) win a Test match over five days and not be keen to finish it off in three days,” he had remarked.   

Amid the controversy, the CAB promised to offer Dhoni and co a strip keeping in mind the “home advantage”.

“Of course we will keep the home advantage factor in mind. But at the same time it would be a sporting wicket that would last for five days,” CAB joint-secretary Sujan Mukherjee said.

Outspoken, Mukherjee in the past had a few run-ins with Dhoni with respect to his demands on pitches, and this time too the veteran reportedly didn’t agree with the Indian skipper on the nature of playing surface.

Mukherjee criticised Dhoni and apparently demanded a written instruction from the BCCI to prepare a turner, saying, “Two pitches can never be the same, logically. It’s most unethical if the India captain makes such statements in public. He’s passing such comments every now and then, which is really unfortunate.”