“Let Srinivasan say whatever he wants to. I don’t listen to him. I don’t even speak to the (CAB) President before preparing a wicket. I act as per my knowledge of the wicket. I also don’t read the newspaper reports. Let them write what they want,” Mukherjee told PTI.

Over the last few days, speculation has been rife that Mukherjee’s days as curator of the historic ground are numbered. In fact, an irate Srinivasan, in a meeting on Friday, reportedly asked CAB chief Jagmohan Dalmiya to make the 83-year-old fall in line or else get ready for a harsh reality.

Asked whether his days were numbered, Mukherjee said, “It’s a million-dollar question.”u00a0A CAB official had divulged details of the meeting to that took place between Srinivasan and Dalmiya to MiD DAY on Friday. “He (Srinivasan) was very unhappy with the Eden strip and asked CAB to make Mukherjee fall in line or else ‘sack’ him. BCCI would be forced to take a harsh step against the association — like not granting any match to this venue, Srinivasan told CAB,” the official said.

“CAB was out of favour for a long time, and now after we have buried the hatchet with the BCCI, we cannot afford to take them on once again. “Srinivasan even said that these sort of wickets would not help India capitalise on home conditions and so that won’t be tolerated. He said ‘either convince him or sack him’,” the official added.

However, the CAB now finds itself in a fix considering there’s no suitable replacement available to handle the day-to-day affairs of the pitch if the octogenarian is sacked.u00a0