Pandurang Salgaonkar is not someone who would fix matches, says former colleague

The cricket world were taken aback moments before the second ODI between India and New Zealand went underway at the MCA Stadium, Pune. The pitch curator, Pandurang Salgaonkar, was seen caught conceding to unscrupulous demands in a sting operation by India Today. In the video, the journalists faked themselves as bookies.

Pandurang Salgaonkar was seen accepting the demands of doctoring the pitch before the game got underway. The acting bookies offered Salgaonkar a share of their income and the latter was seen nodding his head. When the sting operation broke out in the media, the BCCI suspended the Pune curator with immediate effect.

Now, even the ICC is closely monitoring the issue. The match, after a brief while of being under the threat of being called off, eventually went underway. For now, Pandurang Salgaonkar has fetched a lot of infamy for himself.

Said things to fend off the journalists

While there are many who are speaking against him, the former BCCI West Zone chief curator Dhiraj Parsana feels Salgaonkar might have said things to fend off the journalists. He cited that the nature of Salgaonkar is such that he often says things to avoid any detailed discussions with people.

“I used to tell him to not run away from the media but tell them in brief of what’s happening. Maybe that’s how he has learnt these things. I know Pandurang as a cricketer and as a person,” he quoted as per the quotes in Hindustan Times.

“We played a lot of cricket in Mumbai; he used to play for Mahindra and Mahindra and I used to play for Mafatlal. He has been a very strong person all these years as a curator. He is always fond of what he is doing, and he is not like that. He is not a person who would fix. He is a strong-minded person, a wonderful curator. I am sure what he said would have been to fend off those people,” Parsana mentioned.