Curators ask for pay hike following Pune pitch scandal

Ahead of the second ODI between India and New Zealand, the pitch curator of the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) stadium, Salgaoncar leaked inside information during a sting operation which was conducted by India Today. The news came as a shock for the curators’ fraternity of India and though none of the curators on BCCI's payroll is ready to go on record, many of them feel it has a lot to do with the "poor payment" of the groundsmen.

"I don't know what exactly happened. It's a black mark on curators. Most of us spoke about this issue and we were shocked. We have read a lot about people being involved in such things for money. There will be talks on why Salgaonkar did like that and whether it was for money or the lack of it. Curators take a lot of pride in their work and it is high time their salaries are revised," a top curator, on condition of anonymity, told TOI.

The payment of a handful of zonal curators in the country is taken care by BCCI and the respective state associations pay monthly salaries to 15-20 groundsmen in each of its stadiums. The chief curator takes responsibility for things on the ground. An assistant curator, head supervisor, assistant supervisor, head groundsman and a few assistants supported him. The pay-scale depends according to their posts.

It was learned that a chief curator gets around Rs 35,000 as monthly salary, while his assistants earn close to Rs 20,000. The personnel below them get Rs 8000 to Rs 10,000 while some curators get a pension of about Rs 2000.

"The BCCI pays its cricketers. But it's not the same with us. We have raised these issues in a lot of BCCI meetings but nothing has been done thus far. Two decades ago, groundsmen would have at least two months' break. These days we work right through the year. There's so much scrutiny on the curators ahead of a match but no one is bothered about their concerns," another curator said.

In the recent past, the number of cricket matches gets high which result in extra workload for the curators. But Curators felt that they failed to earn according to their job. 

"...But nothing materialized. BCCI doesn't allocate funds separately to state associations to pay groundsmen. There are certain associations which pay a good bonus to its ground-staff. However, in general, they don't get paid much. I'm not sure why Salgaonkar did this. But the curators' pay is an issue that the CoA (Committee Of Administrators) has to address soon," the official said.