Well-known cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle with HCA curator YL Chandrasekhar
YL Chandrasekhar, BCCI curator from Hyderabad, has been acknowledged as one of the best in India by some of the cricketing greats like Sunil Gavaskar, who is also incidentally the curator’s favourite cricketer
Hyderabad: For long, YL Chandrasekhar, BCCI curator from Hyderabad, has been acknowledged as one of the best in India by some of the cricketing greats like Sunil Gavaskar, who is also incidentally the curator’s favourite cricketer.
And, so when fellow Hyderabadi and commentator Harsha Bhogle walked across, as he always does, to share a few thoughts in appreciation after an IPL game, his joy knew no bounds. In a way, it was a reunion of two personalities who take pride in being Hyderabadis with a common passion – cricket.
“I love catching up with Chandu, or Chandrasekhar, whenever I do a match in Hyderabad. Simple, quiet groundsman who produced excellent tracks,” well-known commentator and Hyderabadi Harsha Bhogle posted on his Instagram about the curator of Rajiv Gandhi Stadium (Uppal).
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“I try to learn a bit more about turf pitches, I was overjoyed to discover that he has just installed turf pitches in my school (HPS Begumpet), so different from the one matting pitch we had,” Bhogle said.
“Both of us played league cricket in Hyderabad years ago. People like him do such good work in Indian cricket. Talking of which, I haven’t met Tapash, another of my curators, for a while,” the genial commentator said.
For his part, Chandrasekhar, who is into the job now for close to 30 years, led ICRISAT for 20 years as an opening all-rounder and now consultant chief curator of HCA taking care of all the grounds which host the leagues, assisted by a full team including Mukesh Kumar, Pranisha, junior and senior Mallesh, said HPS was a full-fledged cricket ground and it was always a great feeling to meet someone.
It is not for nothing that Chandrasekhar has been adjudged ‘Best Curator’ in IPL four times and has been invited by many other State Cricket Associations to prepare turf wickets. In a way, he owes his credibility and reputation to the “complete effort” of his entire, dedicated groundstaff of about 20 at Uppal.
In fact, he summons other staff from NFC< ECIL for the big matches so that nothing goes wrong. In a task which is never easy as it is the pitch which stays in focus for any result for any team including Mukesh Kumar, Pranisha, the two Malleshs’ and others and to his credit Chandu, has carved a niche for himself as he is very articulate and good in communication having worked in ICRISAT.
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