NO REGRETS, SAYS '04 NAGPUR CURATOR

Pradhan defends surface, insists given a chance he will prepare similar strip against Australia this time too

- FIROZ MIRZA

KISHORE Pradhan is indifferent to the cricket fever that has gripped Nagpur. The BorderGavaskar Trophy is commencing in the Orange City on Thursday but Pradhan, who inadvertently wrote himself to folklore, is divorced from cricket these days. Two days out from the Test, he was watching Ultimate Fighting Championship at his home in Hindustan Colony near Dr Babasaheb. Ambedkar International Airport, Nagpur on Monday afternoon. Leading a retired life for more than a decade now, the 83-year-old Pradhan used to be in the thick of things whenever the city was scheduled to host a cricket match. But that changed long ago. Pradhan had distanced himself from the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) to such an extent that he no longer knows who is the curator for the first match between India and Australia - a job he had done for years before seeking voluntary retirement in 2009.

But no matter how hard he tries to stay away from the action, Pradhan knows he is going to be remembered whenever Australia plays a Test in the city. Reason? It was on the surface prepared by him that the Aussies last won a Test series in India way back in 2004-05. Knowing fully that people still curse him for laying out the bouncy and pacy wicket more suitable for the visitors, Pradhan firmly believes that his intentions were good and the hosts didn't apply themselves otherwise the result could have been different.