There is more controversy in India ahead of hosting the first test against the West Indies which gets underway on Thursday in Rajkot.
This as the Saurashtra Cricket Association the SCA is upset at the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s decision to send its own curators for pitch preparation ahead of the first test even though the parent’s body move is considered ‘standard practice’.
Saurashtra strongman Niranjan Shah, who ruled the SCA for more than four decades before being made ineligible in the wake of the Lodha recommendations, said local curators are capable enough to prepare a good wicket.
His comments come as BCCI curators have taken charge of the wicket in Rajkot.
The Indian team management has reportedly asked for bouncy pitches for the two tests against the West Indies in Rajkot from October 4-8 and Hyderabad from October 12 to 16, keeping in mind the long tour of Australia beginning late in November.
The West Indies play their final game of the India tour on November 11 while the first T/20 between India and Australia is scheduled for November 21 at the Gabba in Brisbane.
That narrow 10-day window leaves India with little time to prepare, as pointed out by coach Ravi Shastri after the team’s yet another overseas test series loss, against England, last month.
In an earlier controversy the second one day international could be shifted away from Indore, because of a tussle over complimentary ticket allocation between the BCCI and the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association.