India vs New Zealand ODI: Pitch tampering reports ahead of match hint corruption

Pune : Hours before the start of Pune ODI match between India and New Zealand, the pitch curators have landed into a big corruption trouble.

A television channel has run a sting operation showing one of its reporters approaching a pitch curator as a bookie and asking him to create a pitch that favours fast bowlers.

The curator, Pandurang Salgaoncar, can be seen and heard agreeing to his demands. 

"It will be done," Salgaoncar is quoted as saying by India Today.

"It is a very good pitch on which 337 runs will be chaseable. There is no doubt about it," he added.

"I told you this will be a 340-run wicket either way."

Salgaoncar and others are also seen walking on the pitch. "It's not allowed still we did it. The BCCI observer is also sitting around," Salgaoncar said.

"No stranger can access the pitch. That is the BCCI and ICC's law.

"If the BCCI and ICC ask me tomorrow I will say no one came, I don't know," he added.

Post media reports, BCCI has promised a swift action in the issue. "We will take the strictest action. I am not yet aware of the full thing," BCCI Acting Secretary Amitabh Chaudhary said.