MUMBAI: The sting operation conducted by TV channel Al Jazeera recently, which showed match fixers allegedly rigging the pitch at the Galle Stadium in Sri Lanka by bribing the curator, has alerted the BCCI .

On Wednesday, on the second day of its curators & groundsmen workshop, the BCCI’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) will conduct a special session for around 70 Indian curators, to help them understand the threat of fixers around the game. Among those attending will be former First-Class player and the Pune pitch curator Pandurang Salgaonkar , who was handed a backdated suspension of six months by the ICC for failing to report an approach by journalists posing as bookies ahead of the India-New Zealand clash in Pune last October. Salgaonkar was eventually given a clean chit by the ICC.

“There’s a session on that (threat of corruption in the game) tomorrow. It’s be conducted by out anti-corruption team. It’s been initiated by Daljeet Singh , (the head of the Board’s pitches and ground s committee),” former India wicketkeeper Saba Karim, who’s currently the GM, cricket operations, BCCI, told TOI on Tuesday. It’s learnt that the Board had organised a session on similar lines for the curators before this IPL too, but it was attended by only those curators (nine in all) who were preparing pitches in the IPL.

Another source threw more light on the Board’s timely initiative. “We’re holding a one-and-a-half hour session for our curators on anti-corruption code. Our anticorruption officer (Deepak Malhotra) will brief the curators, and will discuss with them the recent cases of corruption in the game, including the sting operation by Al Jazeera. The curators will be given strict instructions to not talk about how the pitch will behave in match, with anyone, including the media, about the pitch. That ‘code’ has already been in place. The curators will be told to direct all questions about the pitch to the BCCI spokesperson,” a BCCI official told TOI on Tuesday.

“Malhotra had given a similar presentation to the curators before this IPL too, but this time, he has a lot more material to tell the curators about. He’ll tell them about the ‘Dos and don’ts,’ what happens in other leagues around the world, who’re the big fixers, how they lure you, what do they come as,” he added. He, however, played down the possibility of curators being corrupted in India. “In India that’s not possible, because the association and the Board oversee preparation of the pitch,” he said.

Meanwhile, for the first time, a group of curators (two each from each state) from the North East and Bihar too attended the curators’ & groundsmen workshop. “We’ve appointed a BCCI qualified curator (SB Singh from Jharkhand) for North-East. He’ll work with Ashish Bhowmick, zonal curator from the East Zone. The N-E curators have to give us a time-bound programme about developing grounds in their region. We’ll give them all the sport. We want cricket to flourish in N-E,” he said.

