Ravi Shastri spat with curator

The Mumbai Cricket Association vice president Dilip Vengsarkar received a complaint from Wankhede’s curator Sudhir Naik yesterday, where he alleged that the Indian team manager Ravi Shastri abused him after India’s humiliating loss to South Africa by 214 runs.

“We have received a letter from Sudhir Naik where he has alleged that two Indian team support staff members Shastri and Arun had a heated argument with him post the India versus South Africa game. The matter will be put up in the next MCA managing committee meeting,” said MCA joint-secretary Unmesh Khanvilkar.

The team India staff support led by an angry Ravi Shastri was unhappy with the pitch for the fifth ODI. The management had requested the ground staff to prepare the pitch so that it is on the slower side but they used a heavy roller twice on the day before the game to make the track suitable for the Proteas.

The team management had already decided to play three spinners but when they saw the pitch on the evening before the match, Shastri got angry and requested Naik to pour more water to make the wicket damp. Naik and his ground staff didn’t follow the instructions and when India lost the game Shastri had a few things to say to Naik. According to Naik, Shastri sarcastically said “great wicket”, and later allegedly abused him in Marathi.

The BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur on Monday said that the Board will look into the matter, and take the required steps and follow the standard procedure about Indian team director Ravi Shastri’s alleged confrontation with Wankhede Stadium curator Sudhir Naik.

“We will look into the details of Team Director (Shastri) allegedly confronting curator of Wankhede Stadium yesterday. We had done the same in (sic) Australia (without referring to incident of apparently Kohli and Indian journo). Same yardstick will be applied,” Thakur said.