G Kasturi Rangan, former chairman of the grounds and pitches committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, told rediff.com during the TVS Salve Challenger Cup tournament that he quit his post in July in sheer frustration.
"There was just no communication with the board," Kasturi Rangan said. "I tried several times to get in touch with [BCCI president] Mr [Jagmohan] Dalmiya, but was unable to."
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Kasturi Rangan sent several letters to the board about implementing certain measures for pitches and grounds during the five-month off-season, but was just kept waiting for a reply.
Most of his attempts to contact the board's secretary, S K Nair, were futile. Whenever he did get through, he was told to wait because the board officials were seized of the player contracts tangle. Of course, it is a different matter that the contracts have not been signed as yet.
"I had to get Mr Dalmiya's personal mobile number from Venkata Rao [secretary of the Andhra Pradesh Cricket Association] and speak to him," Kasturi Rangan said. "Only when I told Kunal Ghosh [Dalmiya's secretary] that Venkata Rao had given me the number did he pass the phone to Mr Dalmiya."
When Kasturi Rangan told Dalmiya about the letters addressed to his office, the board president said he hadn't received any. "Instead he told me the players and coaches were very unhappy with the pitches and blamed me for it."
Kasturi Rangan tried to convince Dalmiya about the failure of various state associations to implement the recommendations of the report submitted by the New Zealand Sports Turf Institute, which lays golf courses and football and cricket fields. The report had pointed out that relaid pitches would take about a year to come good. But Dalmiya was not impressed.
"I had no option but to resign," Kasturi Rangan said. "Mr Dalmiya told me to take whatever decision I wanted."
"Forget the other grounds," Kasturi Rangan continued, "the Karnataka State Cricket Association, a Test venue, failed to adhere to the pitch committee's recommendations. I have been asking them to buy a one-ton roller for the last two and a half years, but they did nothing. Now I have resigned and they have bought one."
Grounds that adhered to the NZSTI plan have shown promising results well inside the 12-18 months that Bill Walmsley, director of the institute, had said it would take.
Responding to Kasturi Rangan's resignation in July, Dalmiya had said: "He was a paid employee of the board. I am entitled to ask him why some pitches still have ankle-high bounce. Everyone is accountable; even I am.
"If he wants to resign on health grounds, what can I do?"
Kasturi Rangan, however, said he did not want to rake up a controversy and so cited ill-health as the reason for his resignation.
Asked if Dalmiya had read the report submitted by the NZSTI, Kasturi Rangan said he doubts it.
But every cloud has a silver lining. Kasturi Rangan believes his resignation will ensure that the board president meets the pitches committee more regularly.
"Mr Dalmiya has promised to meet the pitches committee once every three months. That is a very good sign. At least they won't suffer like I did," Kasturi Rangan said.
"Mr Dalmiya is a great man with vision," he said. "He was the person who formed the pitches committee when he was board secretary. When he became ICC president the whole pitches issue was buried. It was only after he came back as board president that the pitches committee began functioning and the members got paid.
"Before he came back, we were not paid for two years."
Reacting to his successor Venkat Sundaram's criticism of pitches and grounds, Kasturi Rangan said it was unwarranted. "I think [former Saurashtra pace bowler] Dhiraj Parsana should have been appointed chairman instead of Sundaram. Also, on what grounds has he been appointed in charge of the South Zone when he himself lives in Delhi?"
