Former Eden Gardens pitch curator Prabir Mukherjee passes away
Jun 1, 2016 at 1:23 PM
Former chief pitch curator of Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) Prabir Mukherjee passed away on Tuesday night at his residence in Kolkata, due to illness. He was 86 years old and was much-in-the-news Indian curator.
After retiring as an accounts officer of South Eastern Railway, Prabir Mukherjee had been in charge of Eden Gardens’ pitches and grounds for 25 years. Prabir Mukherjee was suffering from a poor liver condition along with other old-age related problems in the recent times.
There is a tradition in CAB that after the death of distinguished members of CAB, their bodies are brought into CAB premises for people to pay their last respect. However interestingly, Prabir Mukherjee’s last wish was that his body should not be taken to the CAB premises.
According to a family member’s explanation, Prabir Mukherjee was displeased on CAB administration’s behaviour to him on many occasions.
Prabir Mukherjee was in news for many times. At recent time, he was in the news during the third and final T20I match between India and South Africa in October last year, which was to be played at Eden Gardens. But the match washed out due to minor rain for which the bosses blamed Prabir Mukherjee.
Prabir Mukherjee was a fast bowler as well as a football goalkeeper, but after a road accident his playing days ended. After that, he learned to make pitch under former CAB chief coach Kartik Bose.
Prabir Mukherjee started his work at Suburban Club. In 1964, Prabir Mukherjee was elected the secretary of Bengal National Railways Club. After becoming a part of CAB in 1979, Mukherjee was going on soon to become the manager of the Bengal as well as the East Zone team. In mid 1980s, Mukherjee started working on pitches.
In 1987 World Cup final and 1996 World Cup semi-final, both which were played in Eden Gardens, Mukherjee was in charge of the ground.
In recent times, Mukherjee was also in charge of the pitches and ground at the Deshbandhu Park and the Jadavpur University Ground. CAB runs an academy in the Deshbandhu Park while the Jadavpur University Ground is Kolkata’s second first-class venue after Eden Gardens (since 2002).