PITCH-MAN AT PUNE

Pandurang Salgaonkar set to return as curator at Pune stadium

by Amit Karmarkar • Published on

Representational Image: Dhoni inspects the pitch at the MCA stadium. © AFP

Pandurang Salgaonkar is all set to return as the curator of the MCA stadium in Gahunje next week. The Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) secretary Riyaz Bagwan said the decision to this effect was taken by the association's managing committee recently.

"He will be re-appointed on April 25, a day after his suspension ends. We have already spoken to him and he is willing to resume," added Bagwan.

Salgaonkar, 68, was suspended for six months by ICC from all cricket activities after he entertained some TV journalists who claimed to have posed as bookies in the lead up to India's ODI against New Zealand last October.

The ICC inquiry, after looking into the unedited footage from the news channel concerned, concluded that no explicit monetary offer was made to the curator to change the nature of the pitch. But the former Maharashtra fast bowler was suspended for failing to report the incident to the anti-corruption authorities. Salgaonkar also lost his MCA managing committee member's post from the Sindhudurg district following the incident.

The detailed verdict of the ICC had stated that Salgaonkar spoke to the sting operators after being put into contact by another pitch curator whose name and intention was not revealed.

When TOI had asked the then MCA president Abhay Apte whether the association would like to get to the bottom of the incident by finding out how the two men could approach Salgaonkar and whether there was any security breach at the stadium, he had said: "The MCA managing committee will take a call on that."

Salgaonkar, who played 63 first class matches for Maharashtra from 1971 to 1982, was the curator when the city hosted its first ever Test match between India and Australia last February. The rank turner laid out for the game spectacularly backfired on the hosts who lost the match inside three days.

After the ICC match referee termed the venomous track as "poor" in his report, the MCA roped in former Maharashtra captain and national selector Surendra Bhave as additional curator for the seven home games of Pune's IPL franchise.

Now, Bhave has been appointed as coach of U-19 West Zone cricket camp till May 17.

© TNN