indore over the years there have been controversies over the kind of wickets that have been dished out in domestic cricket teams have taken undue advantage and some venues have also copped a ban the last two seasons however are an exception to this as neutral curators swung into actionlast year teams were made to crisscross all over the country to avoid home teams doctoring pitches yet we had instances where games finished inside three days this year neutral curators did a fabulous job throughout not a single match finished in two days and most of the matches between good sides were evenly contestedthe revival however started way back in 2012 when sanjay jagdale was bcci secretary he wanted to produce competitive wickets which would raise the standard of the game we wanted good cricketing wickets and not just grassy wickets i feel curators have been playing an important role in indian cricket i felt curators should be trained scientifically given good opportunities to learn and experiment i challenged them to prepare good cricketing wickets at the domestic circuit which should have proper bounce and also turn as the game progresses jagdale told toithe bcci organized a workshop and later on conducted a course for curators which is still going on daljeet singh chairman of pitches grounds committee and his committee played an important role we increased the members of that committee and the concept of neutral curators started for the first time then basically bcci curators job was to monitor the preparations he saiddaljeet acknowledged the contribution of jagdale when jagdale sir became secretary we requested him for curators course just like bcci would organize for coaches umpires and video analysts we prepared a manual and the first course of three weeks duration was organized in mohali pr vishwanath and venkat sundaram also played a huge role in preparing the manual he saidwe have 62 qualified curators now while captains and coaches complained about hectic travelling last year none of them complained about the wickets we have organized 117 league matches at 51 venues engaging 18 qualified curators theres hardly any complaint this season where ball is turning or seaming too much or he wicket is too flat the knockout wickets also provided good competitive cricket just like umpires match referees and scorers curators should also get posted for matches the veteran curator saidjagdale said bcci did the right thing to start home and away game again as it is no one comes to watch ranji trophy at ground and if two outstation teams are playing who will come to watch that match this is not good for domestic cricket even now when a local team is playing you have 15002000 spectators he saidformer mpca president said wickets have indirectly helped in bringing out good talent if you see the likes of lokesh rahul karun nair and shreyas iyer have good start to their international careers because they started playing first class cricket on good wickets a fiveday