Ageing pitch might have slowed down: Daljit

MOHALI: Daljit Singh, the 73-year-old curator of the PCA stadium, has been chased relentlessly by the media these last few days, and the inevitable question posed to him has been: What type of wicket have you pre pared for the first Test between India and South Africa?
With Team India's director of cricket Ravi Shastri calling or maximization of home advantage, it's natural to think the Mohali wicket could be a raging turner.A strip that could take spin from Day 1 itself, a track that would endorse Shastri's idea of going in with "four spinners, if allowed to".
But Daljit, the soft-spoken septuagenarian, made no bones about the fact that the original character of a pitch cannot be changed drastically ."A lot is being said and written about home advantage. But it also has its limitations. In my opinion the character of a pitch cannot be changed drastically and it will remain the same no matter what," Daljit remarked.
However, he gave a hint of things to comer, when he said, "Our pitch is 23 years old. It is an ageing pitch, which has not been re-laid, but it has played well in the matches that have happened in the recent past. It might have slowed down a bit as it is an old pitch. Like humans, the pitch also grows old. We have repaired the footmarks that were left in the previous matches and it will certainly hold well," he said.
"We have not prepared the Mohali pitch looking at only one team. How a wicket actually behaves can be known only when the match starts. A curator does not decide the result of the match. Our job is to prepare the track and then it is up to the players to perform on it," the chairman of BCCI's pitches and grounds committee said, sounding irritated. "The main aim of the curator is to prepare a result-oriented track and that's what we have tried. The skills of the game should come on display, whether it is fast bowling, spin or bating."