Saurashtra curator Mahendra Rajdev didn't take Arun Lal's criticism of the surface used for this season's Ranji Trophy final against Bengal lightly.
Rajdev responded by vehemently disapproving the "very poor pitch" judgement from Lal, the Bengal head coach, and reminded him the deck was made under the supervision of BCCI neutral curator in Rajkot.
The deck offering inconsistent bounce, erring more on the slower side, saw Bengal's pacers struggle for wickets as Saurashtra posted a mammoth 425 in the first innings after batting more than six sessions.
"The pitch may not have had extra bounce which Bengal bowlers were looking for, but that does not make the wicket poor," said Rajdev in a SCA statement.
"It is a rather hasty and poor judgment by the Bengal Coach and it may not be beneficial for their own players when the coach makes a statement like this."
"It is the same pitch for both the teams, which was prepared under the neutral curator (L Prashanth Rao) from the BCCI."
However, a state-body official confirmed there are no plans to bring Lal's comment to BCCI's attention.
"It was way too early for Lal to talk the way he did," the official said. "It is a decent wicket. The match had hardly begun and he spoke like this. He should have been more careful with his words."
The match referee will anyway be submitting its report on the surface to the board as per standard practice.
It remains to be seen whether Lal's opinion will be backed by that of the match referee.
(Inputs from PTI)
