Ganguly Defends Eden Gardens Pitch Amid Criticism Over Track

CAB president Sourav Ganguly defended the Eden Gardens pitch after it deteriorated rapidly during the India-South Africa Test.

Cricket Association of Bengal president Sourav Ganguly defended the condition of the Eden Gardens pitch being used in the first Test between India and South Africa. The surface has drawn attention after deteriorating quickly during the match.

After India was bowled out for 189 in response to South Africa’s first innings total of 159, the visitors struggled against spin bowling. South Africa slumped to 93/7 in their second innings, holding a slim lead of just 63 runs.

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Pitch Conditions Defended

Ganguly stated that the pitch conditions were deliberately prepared according to the Indian team’s preferences. He explained that the surface’s behavior resulted from specific preparation methods.

“The pitch is what the Indian camp wanted. This is what happens when you don’t water the pitch for four days. Curator Sujan Mukherjee can’t be blamed,” Sourav Ganguly told News18 Bangla.

This statement came after Ganguly had earlier claimed that coach Gautam Gambhir and the Indian team management had not specifically requested a turning wicket. “They haven’t asked for it yet, so I can’t answer that question. It looks like a very good one,” Ganguly had told PTI on Monday.

Gambhir had inspected the pitch upon arriving from the Australia white-ball series along with batting coach Sitanshu Kotak. Ganguly also examined the wicket later, after which the entire square was covered for protection.

India’s bowling coach Morne Morkel expressed surprise at how quickly the pitch deteriorated. “Yeah, look, I mean, to be honest with you, even we didn’t expect a wicket to deteriorate so quickly… we all thought when we watched that first couple of hours that it was a good wicket, so it did deteriorate quite quickly, which was unexpected,” he said after the second day’s play.

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Morkel added that such unpredictability is part of playing in the subcontinent. “That’s the beauty sometimes of playing in the subcontinent… you need to be able to adapt and react to conditions quite quickly and that’s the sort of challenge that we’re facing here at the moment.”