In 2004 at Nagpur, the Aussies defeated an Indian team led by Sourav Ganguly on a surprisingly green and bouncy track, taking an unassailable lead in the Test series for their first series win in India in decades.

Curator Kishore  Pradhan had turned a deaf ear to the pleading of Ganguly, who tried but failed to beg and later bully him to shave the grass off. Then, the Indians were pummelled by Glen McGrath and Jason Gillespie.

The real villain, we all knew, was VCA president Shashank Manohar, an ally of Sharad Pawar who was intent on bringing down Indian cricket after being defeated by Jagmohan Dalmiya in BCCI elections. It was an ignominious moment indeed for Indian cricket. Sadly, these very two gentlemen are at the apex of Indian cricket administration today, but that is another story.

An eerily similar situation was played out in Ahmedabad yesterday when curator Dhiraj Parsana came into the firing line of captain Anil Kumble and spinner Harbhajan Singh after India were shot out for 76 on a greentop. This time, there was no alliance that the curator had entered into for political purposes; he had no axe to grind against the Indian team.

After the day's play, Parsana even had the temerity to say he was happy with his work. “I am satisfied with the way the pitch has played,” he said. “I feel pain for the Indian team the way the batting collapsed. But this wicket will not crumble.”

When told of Harbhajan's remarks, his response was sharp, "Their job is to play and not advise me. I know my job and I have done that."

Exactly why was it his job to prepare what wrecker-in-chief Dale Steyn called one of the greenest pitches he had ever seen?

"I am familiar with the conditions here and I know what would have happened had I removed the grass," he said.

He explained that were it not for the grass, the heat would have broken up the pitch in a couple of days.

Would that have been so bad for India? Perhaps Parsana was fearful of retaliation from the ICC, which is known to react sharply when a pitch in India takes turn early. Whether that is fair is another matter.

However, Parsana has been preparing such pitches all season.

The last first-class match before this should been a portent: South were 80/8 by lunch on Day 1, before the tail wagged to put on 70 more. But North effectively sealed the deal and there were no more terrors in the pitch.

The penultimate FC match before this was also similar, with Tripura nearly tripling their first innings score but still losing big.

Gujarat paceman Siddharth Trivedi had said that the pitch was very helpful early on to faster bowlers during the season.

So why did Kumble decide to bat, after picking a seamer-heavy team and winning the toss on a greentop? 3 seamers are unusual in an Indian team, and it made no sense to cede use of the greentop to the excellent South African pacemen.

Back to Parsana, who is more than just a gardener, having played 2 Tests for India against the West Indies in 1978-79, and was a successful left-arm seamer in domestic cricket.

“The pitch will last for five days and probably take spin on the final day. I wanted to prepare a sporting wicket that helps both batsmen and bowlers and I’ve managed to do that. In that sense I’m satisfied.”

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS

• Think you know your sport? Click here to try the Sportnetwork Prize Quizzes