Former Bengal cricketer Shreevats Goswami has added fuel to the fire around Eden Gardens curator Sujan Mukherjee’s statement about the pitch for the Kolkata Knight Riders vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru track, saying that the curator didn’t let Bengal players train at the venue so that the grass wouldn’t get spoiled. Goswami, a member of ace India batter Virat Kohli‘s U19 World Cup-winning Indian team who represented Bengal in 61 first-class games and over 200 white-ball matches, said that Mukherjee never permitted home advantage. Ever since Mukherjee said that he wouldn’t change the nature of the Eden Gardens pitch till he was there, he has been subject to massive flak. “Fact: Nothing new with the Eden garden curator not listening to the home captain. Having played for bengal for over a decade, have been a witness to this from close quarters. As a home team, we would ask for a certain pitch to take the home advantage but would seldom get it,” Goswami tweeted on Thursday night. Fact : Nothing new with the Eden garden curator not listening to the home captain. Having played for bengal over a decade,have been witness to this from close quarters. As a home team we would ask for a certain pitch to take the home advantage but would seldom get it.Infact the… — Shreevats goswami (@shreevats1) March 27, 2025 Mukherjee has been the chief curator of the Eden Gardens for almost 10 years now. He was the main architect of transforming the venue’s slow and low pitch to a fast and bouncy one that aided pacers. While the pitch has produced good cricket games, it has not always gone down well with the home sides, including Bengal and Kolkata, who haven’t been able to term the Eden Gardens a fortress. This is one of the primary reasons Bengal sometimes prefer to play their must-win matches at the University ground in Salt Lake instead of the Eden Gardens. After receiving much flak, Mukherjee also came out in his defence. “No official or player asked for the pitch requirement for the first match. A coach at the time of practice asked me about the behaviour of the pitch. I said ghumega bhi aur accha chalega (the pitch will turn, and it will be good for batting),” Mukherjee told Sports Tak.