Eden pitch under scanner ahead of KKR-Kochi tie

All eyes will be on the Eden Gardens strip when Kolkata Knight Riders take on Kochi Tuskers Kerala in their Indian Premier League Twenty20 match in Kolkata on Wednesday.

In the news after the India-England World Cup match was shifted out for lack of preparation, Eden Gardens is again in the spotlight after the Kolkata Knight Riders match against Rajasthan Royals on April 17.

After Rajasthan Royals were shot out for 81, the Eden 22-yard strip came under a lot of scrutiny and there are reports that the Knight Riders think-tank was not happy with curator Probir Mukherjee's work.

However, Mukherjee said, "We have two strips for seven matches. So we will keep altering. It will be a different strip tomorrow. It will be a good sporting wicket."

According to sources, CAB chief Jagmohan Dalmiya, Mukherjee and the KKR team management surveyed the track and even asked the curator to prepare a firm pitch that will produce 'big' totals.

But Mukherjee said he did not have any interference from both the parties.

"I have full freedom. The slowness depends on how much dew is there and the wicket will behave that way. Wicket is slow because the 8 pm start. Dew starts falling from 6 pm," he said.

Fuming at the track, Royals skipper and Aussie spin legend Shane Warne had termed it ordinary and said it did not produce good cricket.

"It was a pretty ordinary wicket. It did not produce good cricket. If it was easy to bat on they would have got the target in six or seven overs. But they were 64 after six overs. It took them 14 overs. It was a half decent wicket. It was so slow," Warne had said after their eight-wicket loss to Knight Riders.

But the curator slammed Warne's statements saying, "You cannot say wicket is ordinary when you play extraordinary cricket. Their batting was hopeless.

"No doubt, he is a great cricketer. But I don't think he is a great human being. He should have said sorry for their batters and accepted that it was their mistake," he added.