India v West Indies 2013: "I had no pressure to prepare a wicket tailor-made for Sachin," - chief curator of Eden Gardens

Sachin Tendulkar at Eden Gardens

Sachin Tendulkar is all set to play his 199th Test match at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata and the entire city is gripped with Tendulkar-fever. However, one man refuses to get carried away in this madness, Prabir Mukherjee, the chief curator of Eden Gardens.

He say that the Eden Gardens track will dish out an even-bouncing good Test match wicket that will provide enough encouragement to both batsmen and the bowlers.

“It will be a good, firm, even-bouncing wicket, so that the [batsmen] will be able to play their shots,” - the chief curator said.

Kolkata has had a lot of rain in the lead-up to the Test match and a Ranji Trophy game between Bengal and Baroda was cancelled last week due to incessant showers. However, the chief curator is confident that it will have no bearing on the game.

However, Mukherjee has no intention of making things easy for Sachin Tendulkar. In fact, he thinks it’s “foolish” to even consider such a request.

“I had no pressure to prepare a wicket tailor-made for Sachin,” he said. “And why should I? He’s played 198 Test matches. For Sachin, to make it easier to bat is a foolish approach. There’s a reason why he’s played so many Test matches. And I’ll just pray to God that he shows that again, by making another hundred in his 199th Test. It’s just a pleasure for us to watch him play here for one last time.”