Less than 4 days: Time that was allotted to prepare the pitch for Ranji Trophy final

The pitch used in the Ranji Trophy final in Rajkot was prepared in less than four days, a Time of India report has stated. Bengal coach Arun Lal had complained about the pitch on the first day of the final itself after too many balls had kept low on the first day of the final match.

Lal had complained about the neutral curator who was allotted for the game and had said that the person should have done a better job.

"Send your curator 15 days before the game," Lal had added.

The TOI report pointed out that, all knockout fixtures faced problems of insufficient preparation time due to back to back fixtures scheduled by the BCCI.

The venue of the Ranji Final was only known after the semifinals were played (given the new policy of home and away fixtures), which essentially gave the pitch curator L Prashanth Rao less than four days to work on the track, the report stated.

The earlier system of 'designated' venue would have been the solution this particular problem, where BCCI used to set aside venues for the knockout games well ahead of the schedule which would give the curators enough time to work on the pitch.