India-New Zealand 2nd ODI Will Not Be Called Off

Pune pitch curator Pandurang Salgaonkar was caught on sting operation revealing details about the wicket to our reporters, disguised as bookies.

Sting operation on Wednesday caught the Pune curator Pandurang Salgaonkar revealing details about the pitch and agreeing to doctor the wicket as per requirement to our reporters, who were disguised as bookies.

This happened just hours before the first ball is to be bowled in the second ODI.

Salgaonkar has since been barred from entering the Maharashtra Cricket Association stadium and an investigation will take place against him and all those responsible behind this scandal.

In what was a savage blow to the ICC and the BCCI's stiff codes on corruption and on restrictions over outsider access to the field before matches, Salgaoncar not only accompanied India Today's undercover reporters to the Pune pitch but also allowed them to tap it.

Worse, he revealed to the reporters, posing as bookies, the wicket was a belter.

"It is very good. I guess it will garner 337 (runs)," Salgaoncar disclosed.

"Are you sure?" probed the journalist.

"Sure and 337 will be chase-able," the curator replied a day before the ODI. "There's no doubt about it."

If he's to be believed, Pune's wicket was definitely a big-scoring paradise - a bonanza for hard-hitters on the field and for the bookies gambling on them off it.

Salgaoncar, himself a former cricketer, also permitted the investigative reporters to take a test walk on the pitch and stamp it with the feet.

"It's not allowed. Still, we did it. The BCCI observer is also sitting around," he confessed. "If someone asks me tomorrow, I'd say no one came. I don't know."

Now, the curator guaranteed doctoring the pitch to favour one of the teams.

"Two players want some bounce on the pitch. If that can be done," asked the reporter.

"It will be given," he agreed. "I told you this is a 340-run wicket, either way," Salgaoncar added.

"That's fine. That can be bet on. But we want (a team) to be favoured," demanded the journalist.

"That will be done good. I told you," the pitch curator promised.