Pitch perfect

Sometimes in life we start doing something which we had never thought of, or prepared for, but we end up enjoying each and every moment of this new chapter in life. Shivkumar Yadav had no aspirations or training to be a curator as he was growing up but now, in his mid-thirties, he finds himself in charge of the Green Park pitch at Kanpur. And he only came to his present profession through life's surprising twists and turns.

As we sit cross-legged on the freshly laid Green Park wicket in the Wednesday-evening twilight, he reminisces about the 1991 festival match between Kapil Dev's XI and Chetan Sharma's XI in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, where it all started for Yadav, who was then 20 years old. "I was part of the ground-maintenance squad, and was assisting the groundsman there, and though I didn't have much knowledge about pitch-making I developed an interest then."

An aspiring cricketer during his schooldays in Bareilly, where he was the school captain, Yadav went for state trials but was not selected. He was so dismayed that he decided he didn't want to play the game any more, and called time on his playing career. After finishing his diploma in electrical engineering at Bareilly Polytechnic, he ended up working for the state department and eventually was posted into the Uttar Pradesh Sports Department at Allahabad. In 2002 he moved to Kanpur, at a time when the BCCI-appointed pitch panel was relaying fast tracks in six centres across India.

Unfortunately, the scheduled first Test between New Zealand and India in 2003 couldn't take place because the outfield was found unsuitable for play. "According to me it was completely OK, and it was disheartening for the match to be shifted to Ahmedabad," says Yadav, who started the entire ground-renovation work, which included the outfield as well as the pitch, on March 16 this year.

The first priority was to dig out the entire field and remove the wild crogron grass that has been growing locally for more than 25 years and had wild roots as deep as one-and-a-half-feet. The ground was dug to about two feet and then Bermuda grass was planted throughout. "Around that time, Anand Shukla, who is the senior guardian of the Green Park wicket, and who is also part of the BCCI pitch committee, advised me to maintain the pitch, too, by giving me useful tips. He gave me enough reading material and explained various other things that would come handy when making the wicket."

So is this new baby his own brainchild, or has it been doctored by the BCCI mandarins? "It's completely mine," says Yadav, adding further, "abhi toh yeh naya Green Park hain [now it is a new Green Park]." As this is the first proper pitch he has made for an international match, it would be natural for him to be nervous. But, when asked if he's scared, he replies, unhesitatingly, "Far from that - I am proud of it." And his hard work paid off last month, as the Uttar Pradesh Ranji Trophy probables played a game on the new surface - and there wasn't a spot to be found on the shiny new surface. Neither did it crack up.

As I look, and poke, and bounce the ball on the virgin bed of the pitch, one thing stands out - actually it's the first thing anyone will notice - some prominent cracks scattered across the 22 yards. "That's because of the nature of the black cotton soil," Yadav explains. "Nothing else."

The grass has been hard-bound to the surface, and you can barely see any green patches across the pitch. The surface is hard and dry, and the bounce is good. And though Yadav says the surface will last all five days, he knows the spinners will come into play from early on the third day. And that's why he says "India should play three spinners." Why? "We know our fast bowlers won't pose much of a problem as was evident in Jaipur in the tour game."

Another reason is that the pitch committee gave instructions to stop watering from November 14, which means the dew is the only form of moisture the fast bowlers could make use of.

Straying somewhat from the current conversation, I ask if he finds himself a misfit in this trade as he never had thought about becoming a groundsman. "I don't think so, because I am enjoying what I am doing. Though I never studied for it, I am putting my efforts in it and getting the right support." Yadav feels that the BCCI should take on the job of educating the curators in this age of technology, where groundsmanship is a highly skilled profession.

As people are winding up for the day, Yadav says he will be satisfied if "at the end of the match people won't call it a tailor-cut wicket, the one that was on display in the final game of the Australia series."

Tailor-cut, tailor-made: name it what you like - Shivkumar Yadav is a happy man enjoying his new-found passion in life.