Brazilian turf expert Ivan Nascimento spent a month in Kolkata supervising a complete restoration of the Salt Lake Stadium pitch ahead of India's matches against Brazil and Uruguay.
Kolkata's Salt Lake Stadium (Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan) is undergoing final preparations to host international friendlies featuring India against five-time World Cup winner Brazil on October 3 and Uruguay on October 6. Following an initial inspection where the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) expressed dissatisfaction with the pitch condition, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) requested expert assistance to get the surface ready.
Ivan Nascimento, a turf expert from Brasilia, spent nearly a month in Kolkata supervising the operations alongside local ground staff. "Our main goal was to regularise the processes and the soil. We found some unevenness in the soil, with waves on the surface, and the grass was also very tall," Nascimento explained. "So, we started with the agronomic work and then moved on to coordinating the operations so that we could transform this field into a standard international playing field."
The venue's pitch had last seen major work almost a decade ago, when it was converted from artificial AstroTurf to natural Riviera Bermuda grass for the 2017 FIFA Under-17 World Cup. Regular usage during Indian Super League seasons and other tournaments had since affected the playing surface.
Restoration work required levelling through aeration drilling, rolling to flatten uneven spots, and removing thick paint deposits from line markings that had hardened the soil. Nascimento's team also altered mowing directions, applied regular fertilisation, controlled fungus and insects, and created the visual light-and-dark-green stripes across the field.
"In this way, we could make accurate decisions to reach the final goal: a healthy field that allows the players to perform without getting injured and provides a good spectacle for television," Nascimento said. He brought two teams from Brazil—an agronomic team and a stadium department team—who collaborated with the local maintenance crew. Ahead of the fixture, India is scheduled to train on the main pitch between 6 pm and 7 pm on the eve of the match against Brazil.
Reporting sourced from The Hindu Football. Photo courtesy The Hindu Football.