Like home-away format, bring back local curators in Ranji Trophy: Tare
By Bharat Sharma
New Delhi, Jun 7 (PTI) Mumbai captain Aditya Tare feels the BCCI should revert to the traditional home and away concept in Ranji Trophy even when it comes to preparing pitches as it makes the players better-prepared for the higher levels.
While the home and away format was brought back last year after much criticism, the BCCI introduced the neutral curator concept in its bid to stop home teams from preparing "designer pitches". The board has decided to continue with the experiment in the upcoming season as well.
Tare, however, doesn't see anything wrong in having the home advantage.
"Last year, the neutral curators did a decent job. I can't complain about the pitches. But I also feel you need to take the local curators into consideration so that the true nature of the pitch is preserved," Tare told PTI today.
"I would also not mind local curators preparing the pitch completely because that gives home advantage to the teams. Also it makes it a bit more challenging when you go away and play against your strengths."
The seasoned Mumbai skipper said local curators are used in international cricket and therefore having them in domestic cricket makes them all the more relevant.
"In Test cricket also, you have the home team preparing pitches and the away side has to come and face challenging conditions. Why not have that in domestic cricket?
"It also adds to the excitement, it adds to the challenge which you always relish as a first-class player. It makes you more prepared going forward in your career, it makes you better prepared for the higher levels including Test cricket," said Tare, who has played 61 First-Class matches scoring 3554 runs at 37.02.
Talking about his career, Tare expressed disappointment at not being considered for India A tours since 2013 despite "consistent performances" as a wicket-keeper batsman.
"For the past three four seasons I have done well with both the bat and gloves. Disappointed that I am not part of Duleep Trophy and A squads.
"A lot of A tours are coming up but I am not being considered as a potential wicketkeeper-batsman.
"It is something I need to work on and improve myself every season so that I attract the attention of selectors. May be 600 runs in a season are not good enough. I need to score a lot more," added the 30-year-old
