Dhoni thanks curator, gives him Rs 10,000 reward

A grateful Mahendra Singh Dhoni sent a note of thanks and Rs 10,000 to the Green Park stadium’s pitch curator...

A grateful Mahendra Singh Dhoni sent a note of thanks and Rs 10,000 to the Green Park stadium’s pitch curator for preparing the turning track that helped the hosts clinch the series-levelling win over South Africa in the third Test here.

Curator Shiv Kumar said he was pleasantly surprised to receive a personal note of thanks and the cash reward from the stand-in Test skipper after the hosts beat the Proteas inside three days on a crumbling pitch to level the series 1-1. Kumar said regular Test skipper Anil Kumble, who missed the decider due to a groin injury, also came down to meet and thank him for preparing the “spinner-friendly” pitch after the match.

Off spinner Harbhajan Singh, who won the Man of the Series award for scalping 19 wickets, also met Kumar to praise and thank him. However, Kumar maintained that the Green Park wicket was a sporting one and it was unfair to say that it only aided the slower bowlers. “The South African batsmen just couldn’t get used to it (the pitch) and were unsure of how the ball would behave,” he said.

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Meanwhile, BCCI vice president Rajiv Shukla denied the money was a ‘reward.’ “It is general practice to give some money to the curator to distribute among the groundsmen. This money is contributed by the players,” he said. “Even when India lost the match in Ahmedabad, the cricketers gave tips to the curator. It was not any special case in Kanpur,” Shukla said. “If giving money to the curator ensured a win, we would have won all the matches,” he added.

Hosts should get advantage: Warne

Australian spin legend Shane Warne sees nothing wrong in a host side’s insistence on having wickets that work to their advantage. He feels that, instead of cribbing about the turning tracks in India, visiting teams should learn to play on them.

Warne, who is here to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the Rajasthan Royals, said visiting teams should come prepared for turners. “I see nothing wrong in this. Every team visiting India expects such kind of wickets. Every team tries to take advantage of the home conditions and their strengths. I would love to have a spinning track right here if it suits Rajasthan Royals,” Warne said today.

“Don’t the Indians have to play on hard and bouncy wickets in Australia or South Africa? That is the whole fun in cricket. You have to play on different kinds of surfaces and have to prove yourself on them. It is a great challenge,” he added.