BCCI to Continue with Neutral Curators in the Upcoming Domestic Season

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has decided to continue the domestic season with neutral curators.

The decision was taken after they were encouraged by the positive feedbacks during the previous domestic season. The decision will also hamper the plans of the home state associations to prepare pitches as per their wishes.

It was during the two-day annual Curators Conclave that the matter was taken up. It concluded in Mumbai on Thursday.

After a season of neutral venues being adopted for Ranji Trophy, BCCI decided to scrape it. Instead, they introduced the rule of a neutral curator. It was done to stop the home teams from preparing “designer pitches”.

“We got a very positive feedback from all the curators this time about the neutral curator concept. There hasn’t been any significant adverse report from the match referees. It is in regards to poor or sub-standard pitches. So it was decided that neutral curators will continue for the upcoming domestic season also,” a senior BCCI official was quoted as saying by PTI. However, he was not ready to reveal his name.

One of the other major reasons behind this decision is that the neutral curators “cant be pressurised” by host associations.

“The tendency of the host associations to coerce the local curators into preparing designer tracks is a thing of past now.

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The feedback which BCCI got 

“The feedback we got is that neutral curators were adept enough to stave off any pressure that is put on them. Also, if the local groundsmen are under pressure to suppose prepare a rank turner, he can always complain to the neutral curator,” the official added.

There were discussions made on how to upgrade the technology to have a better drainage facility in different stadiums all across the country.

“Chinnaswamy Stadium has the best drainage facility among the stadiums.

We are expecting that all the major international venues will have the same kind of drainage facility. The concept of sub-soil drainage was also discussed,” he added.

Meanwhile, the BCCI nominated all and praised curators for preparing good pitches during the 2018 IPL.

“The standard of pitches during the last IPL was very good, and the curators were praised for their work. The list of neutral curators will soon be released after the next round of meetings,” he said.

It must be learnt that the pitches prepared in India are not always the best. We have witnessed some pretty poor surfaces being dished out in the past. In one of the matches in the previous season, the pitch was unplayable.

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