England batting coach Graham Gooch is happy with the Eden Gardens track and praised the curator, says a report in The Times of India.
"I had a look at the pitch, it looks like a good batting track... both teams will have to fight hard to win the match, and that's how it should be," he said.
Gooch compared the Wankhede pitch to the red clay court at the South Club, “"The ball spins and bounces here like at the Wankhede... it won't be like this at the Eden."
The first two Tests didn’t last for five days and Gooch feels that it will be a different story here, “It's unlikely this one will end in three or four days.”
Meanwhile, The Hindu reports that former England openers Mike Atherton and Geoffrey Boycott were stopped from inspecting the pitch at the Eden Gardens on Monday morning.
“Chief curator Prabir Mukherjee stood his ground and ordered the two to leave the area immediately. Mr. Mukherjee, who was not in sync with the chairman (Daljit Singh) of the Ground and Pitches Committee of the Board regarding the line of preparation of the Eden Gardens pitch for the India-England Test starting on Wednesday, is known to be very protective of the pitch, square and the ground.”
“Mr. Mukherjee, 83, decided to stay away from the Eden Gardens after the zonal curator Ashish Bhowmick was asked to work along with him. He even went to the media saying he would not step on to the ground in future. The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) president Jagmohan Dalmiya and other officials managed to persuade him to return and manage the playing surface,” says the report.