In India,curators come in all shapes and sizes

While Rasik Makwana was an employee with the fire department in Rajkot,Shiv Kumar worked with the electricity board in Uttar Pradesh...

While Rasik Makwana was an employee with the fire department in Rajkot,Shiv Kumar worked with the electricity board in Uttar Pradesh and occasionally still tends to wiring issues at Kanpurs Green Park till recently. Pravin Mukherjee was a Railways employee before retiring in 1990 and Sudhir Naik played three Tests and two ODIs for India during the 70s.

But this assorted group of individuals each with a unique background have one thing in common now they prepare cricket wickets for international matches in India.

The Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) became pioneers for bringing in foreign personnel for preparing wickets when they engaged the expertise of the New Zealand Sports Turf Institute close to a decade back. And MCA president Ajay Shirke believes that there is a huge chasm in the attitudes towards the profession in India and abroad. While becoming a curator is more of a chance occurrence here,pitch-making is more of a specialised field in most other countries.

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There are boys who decide to become groundsmen and curators at the age of 20 and take it up as a serious profession. The present chief of the Pitches Committee for Cricket New Zealand,Karl Johnson who we had engaged seven-eight years ago has never held a bat in his life, he says. Shirke adds that state associations in India have an urge to accommodate former cricketers in their administration in any form possible. Because they have been cricketers,they think they can label themselves expert curators, he says.

A closer look at the profiles of some of the curators at different venues around the country emphasises Shirkes views.

Mukherjee has been in-charge of the wicket at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata for more than 22 years now. But ask the now seasoned curator about his long tenure and he simply says,It is not my profession but just my passion. Mukherjee reveals that the Cricket Association of Bengal started paying him for his services two years back. Mukherjee,who never played first-class cricket,insists that his job entails more about feel than too much science. He was part of the pitches committee for the U-19 World Cup in Dhaka in 2004.

Shiv Kumar chief curator at Kanpurs Green Park replaced Chhotelal in 2004 as a result of a government transfer. During Chottelals reign in Kanpur,the pitch was renowned as a spinners track and India fashioned many a home win during his 20 years there. Kumar incidentally first faced criticism in April 2008 after India beat South Africa inside three days. However,when India thrashed Sri Lanka a month ago,he seemed to have regained the faith of the pitches committee who lauded the pitch.

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YL Chandrasekar who has been in-charge at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderbad for close to three years now though belongs to a modern breed of curators. After having worked in a research institute which deals with different soils and grass for close to 10 years,Chandrasekar decided to shift his expertise to preparing pitches. And his wickets during the T20 Champions League and the India-Australia ODI received rave reviews.

Karnataka State Cricket Association president Brijesh Patel insists that it is crucial for curators to have considerable technical know-how.

It is high time the BCCI sets up a research and development facility where they can test different kinds of soils and grasses. We need a proper department and preparing wickets needs to be a proper process and we should ensure that curators arent simply turning up at the venue two days before the match, says Patel.

(With inputs from Devendra Pandey)