Former BCCI chief curator Daljit Singh believes more grass should be left on the surface and less than usual on the outfield at the Eden Gardens so as to counter the "unavoidable" threat of dew in Kolkata during the historic India versus Bangladesh Day-Night Test next month.
The Cricket Association of Bengal has the experience of hosting a multi-day pink-ball club tournament final under lights, and is already putting plans in place for a festival-like atmosphere for this game, to be played from November 22 to 26.
"One of the main worries will be the dew. There is no doubt about that," Daljit, who retired as BCCI chief curator last month after 22 years of service to Indian cricket, told PTI. "They will have to understand that it will be a handicap which you can't eliminate."
The 77-year-old Daljit remains involved in pitch making with the Punjab Cricket Association.
"To counter that, you have to have thin grass cover on the outfield and taller than usual grass on pitch. The heavier the outfield, the more, it will attract dew. They need to start doing that from today itself," he added.
The timings for the game will be confirmed in due time but it is believed, each day's play will kickstart around 1.30 pm local time and last until 8.30 pm.
Daljit's advise for the curator at the Eden Gardens is from experience. He and his team, in an effort to prolong the pink-ball, did something similar in the Duleep Trophy experiment of 2016 when games were played under lights in Greater Noida.
"The pink ball gets dirty very quickly so they have to keep more grass on the pitch," Daljit added. "If you remember, when the first day-night Test was played at the Adelaide (in 2017), they left 11 mm grass on the pitch, that too you will have culture (nurture) it. You can't just shave it off just days before the game or else pitch will play slow."
"The dew was an issue (when Duleep Trophy was played), the ball got really dirty. The match was played with 7mm grass on the pitch, normally the grass is 2.5 to 4 mm long. And taller grass means the ball will seam a lot."
At the condition of anonymity, one other curator advised against watering the surface too much two-three days before the game.
"Dew factor will be there but it won't be so cold at that point of time," the curator says. "Anti-dew chemicals will have to be used besides the super-soppers, grass on the outfield will have to be cut a lot, irrigation has to be stopped two days before the game because it attracts moisture."
"Normally we keep the grass on the outfield between 7-8mm, for the day-night Test it could be cut to 6mm. This way you can minimise the dew factor but one can't fully negate a natural phenomenon."
Daljit explained the idea behind suggesting less grass on the outfield is borne out of confidence on the soil quality at the Eden Gardens.
"There is no hard soil there, it is a beautiful soil they have there," he said. "They have pretty experienced set of people there and I am sure they will do a good job."
CAB curator Sujan Mukherjee said the dew won't have much of an impact on the game proceedings.
"A lot of precautionary measures will be taken to negate the dew factor. Moreover, dew falls only after 8-8.30pm and continues till about midnight. But as the match would be an early start, the match would be over by 8-8.30pm. So dew won't be a problem at all."
"Our experiment with the day/night match (CAB Super League final in 2016) was very successful and there was no complaint about the ball getting soft," Mukherjee added.
(Inputs from PTI)
