Daljit Singh could face the sack as the chief curator of the Board of Control for Cricket in India following International Cricket Council match referee Chris Broad’s decision to hand the wicket used in Pune during India’s 1st Test against Australia in Pune a “poor” rating, PTI reported.
The Pune wicket was prepared under Singh’s watch and so was the Nagpur wicket during the India-South Africa Test in 2015, which also received a “poor” rating. Just like the Pune Test, the match at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium had finished inside three days except that it was India who romped to a win.
This is a second “poor” rating for an Indian wicket in the last 14 months. The BCCI and the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators are reportedly looking into the showcause notice handed out by the ICC. CEO of the Board, Rahul Johri has 14 days to to reply to the ICC.
“Even if there were instructions from team management, Daljit could have just ignored them,” a source was quoted as saying. “No one can pressurise the curator if he doesn’t want to buckle down. But Daljit has had history of succumbing to demands of team management, giving one designer track after another. It’s just that Nagpur and Pune were too bad even for his comfort. The COA might look into the matter,” the source added.
Earlier, Pune curator Pandurang Salgaoncar also hit out at Singh, claiming that he had warned the officials against preparing a “bald and dry pitch”,
“I had clearly warned the BCCI against preparing a bald and dry pitch. I don’t want to take names, but I had told them that not watering the pitch and removing the grass cover could have a detrimental effect. I know deep within that I had tried my best to make them understand.”
“The fact is that we are reduced to helpers ahead of an international match and we have to follow the instruction of the BCCI pitch committee members present to oversee the preparation. My job was to follow their instructions and I did that,” Salgaoncar told News18.
