Cricket fever has swept Nagpur, but Kishore Pradhan, the famous pitch curator is not giving that eye to the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023. The Border-Gavaskar Trophy will begin on Thursday in Nagpur, but Pradhan, who unintentionally made history, is no longer associated with cricket.
The 83-year-old Pradhan, who has been living a retired life for more than ten years, used to get involved in all the action whenever the city was set to host a cricket match. However, now Pradhan is no longer involved in cricket and has marked himself out from the game for years. The shocking part is Pradhan has marked himself distant from cricket to such an extent that he doesn’t know about the pitch curator for the first test between India and Australia in Nagpur. It was the year 2009 when Pradhan left the cricket field and since then he has not been seen volunteering in any match.
The Australians last won a Test series in India in 2004–2005 on a pitch he had constructed. Pradhan firmly believes that his intentions were good and that the hosts didn’t apply themselves otherwise the result could have been different. He is fully aware that people still criticize him for laying out the fast and bouncy wicket that was more suitable for the visitors.
Pradhan said that senior players were not convinced with the pitch he made and there had been several talks before this match. The reason was India already had faced a defeat in Bengaluru in the first test and with a green pitch it would have been a danger for them to get another loss in Nagpur. The Indian Cricket Team didn’t want this.
Pradhan said,”Once (Sourav) Ganguly saw the pitch, he thought I prepared it on my own. He spoke to me explaining the strengths and weaknesses of both teams. He then met the then-VCA president Shashank Manohar. I also told him that the surface has been prepared in consultation with the VCA chief and coach K Jayantilal. ‘This is the wicket we have prepared and you have to play on it’, I tried explaining to Ganguly.”
Ravi Shastri Advised To Pick Best Spin Combination For Indian Team In The Upcoming Series
Pradhan further added,”As it turned out, Ganguly opted out of the match with an ‘injury’. So did the office, Harbhajan Singh. There were no demons on the pitch. It was all about applying yourself but unfortunately, our batters lost the battle in the mind even before the start of the contest.”
