Everyone’s loving the Eden Gardens pitch
KOLKATA: Apart from KKR, the first set of matches here has produced another winner --- the Eden wicket. Sunrisers Hyderabad coach Tom Moody, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma and Ashish Nehra, playing for different teams, were united in their praise of the 22 most important yards on a cricket field. In January, India skipper Virat Kohli had said it would aid preparations for the Champions Trophy and on Saturday, Robin Uthappa said his fears have been belied.
“I played the (domestic) onedayers here (in February) and was a little scared as to how the wickets would turn out. I didn’t expect the wicket to change so much in such little time. On behalf of the team, I must congratulate the curator and the groundsmen for a phenomenal job,” said Uthappa. “The first match (on Thursday) was a really good track to bat. This wicket was slightly slower but since we have such an all-round side, it fit into our scheme of things perfectly.”
On Friday, Moody had said the Eden track “provides for a fair contest. If you bowl in the right areas, you will get rewarded. It has bounce so the spinners would enjoy bowling. But if you are slightly off, you can be punished.”
On Thursday, Sharma had said this is not the kind of wicket you get often in India. Speaking after him, Yadav had concurred.
The man responsible for this tries his best to avoid being the cynosure. Eden curator Sujan Mukherjee, 62, sits behind one of the team dugouts. His office, by the boundary line, too is a dugout one but one that is a lot more spare. “If you choose the soil right, use Bermuda grass and water and roll it right, you can get a wicket like this in twothree months. And, yes it helps if you have president (at CAB) like Sourav Ganguly,” said the former
Bengal offspinner.