The hosts of the Eden Gardens Test match better keep their fingers crossed and hope match referee Ranjan Madugalle doesn’t take notice of what is a gross violation of the International Cricket Council (ICC) code of conduct. In an audacious move that they could well have been avoided, the Eden groundstaff ended up doing what is usually called ‘tampering’ with the pitch. After the first day’s play on Friday, groundsman Mahesh quietly walked up to the pitch with a hammer in hand, and went about knocking on the wicket, on both ends of it. Admitting this act, the local groundsman told The Indian Express today that he was following instructions from chief curator Kalyan Mitra. The ICC’s rulebook strictly debars any ‘external application’ on the pitch on which an international match is in progress, at least not without the presence of any of the umpires. None of three umpires, Rudi Koertzen, Billy Doctrove and Amish Saheba, was present at the square when the suspicious hammer treatment was in progress. Even as hosts Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) chose to keep mum on the lapse, groundsman Mahesh explained that the reason behind the action was to ensure that the rough patches on either end don’t break up midway into the match. “On both the ends, the popping crease areas were looking very rough. We tapped on the rough patches with a hammer so that the surface doesn’t come off as the match progressed,” he told this daily. India had finished the first day on a whopping 352 for 3, with Wasim Jaffer unbeaten on 192, and Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid having smashed half-centuries. And after the second day’s play yesterday, Pakistan coach Geoff Lawson had openly criticised the pitch, calling for pitches to be more balanced than this Eden track. One double century, four hundreds, and two half-centuries have already been scored on this predictably slow-low wicket. And the only saving grace for curator Mitra and the CAB is the chance of a result. Mitra put up a brave face today despite the brickbats. “After all the criticism, I am relieved that the pitch at least didn’t crumble. I presume there will be some turn on days four and five,” he said after today’s play.
