A curator falling to the lure of money doesn’t come as a surprise to former BCCI pitch committee chairman Venkat Sundaram, who says “underpaid groundsmen” are vulnerable to such approaches. Besides being a pitch expert, Sundaram is a former First-Class batsman who played against the now suspended Pune curator and former pacer Pandurang Salgaoncar, in the ’70s and the ’80s.
Salgaoncar was suspended after being caught in a sting operation, agreeing to tamper with the pitch on the approach of an undercover reporter, posing as a bookie.
“Soft target was very much likely to be the curators, who in my opinion are hugely underpaid compared to match officials and players,” Sundaram told.
The five zonal curators of the BCCI are paid around Rs 50,000 per month.
A First-Class cricketer earns around Rs 12 lakh per annum while umpires and referees are paid around Rs 20,000 per match.
“The India cricketers are earning in crores, the First- Class players are earning in lakhs and they deserve to. But you also have to look after the groundsmen. Not only the chief curator is underpaid, some of the other groundsmen make just about Rs 10,000 to 15,000 per month. But it is still no justification for you to be corrupt and venture into pitch tampering,” said Sundaram, who played 81 First-Class games for Delhi and Tamil Nadu.
