Life of Lee Fortis: The Oval chief curator turns ‘hero from villain’ in five days

London, Aug 5 (PTI) Most pitch curators are possessive about the main square on a cricket field but Lee Fortis, the chief curator at The Oval, takes that obsession to a sacrosanct level.

A week is a long time to change perception in the cricketing world and life in general.

Days after his verbal spat with India head coach Gautam Gambhir turned him into a villain among Indian cricketers and fans, Fortis raised a toast with a bunch of his dedicated ground staff to celebrate the thrilling finish to the The Oval Test.

Did he just transform into hero from villain in a matter of seven days? “Well, I was never the villain, I was made into one. Hope you guys enjoyed the show and the atmosphere was like the IPL. It was a great game,” Fortis said on a lighter note after a busy week at his Oval office.

With both batters and bowlers getting enough out of the surface, it won’t be a stretch to call the Oval square a perfect one for Test cricket.

It was a batting paradise when Joe Root and Harry Brook looked unstoppable chasing a record 374 on day five.

With England needing just 35 runs to win on the final day, Mohammed Siraj weaved magic with the old ball to script a special series levelling win for India.

The overcast conditions helped but on the same surface where batting looked easy on day four, Siraj got the ball moving in the air as well as off the pitch on day five.

When Gambhir called him ‘just a groundsman’ during their heated exchange, the version of the Indian team came out in the open as the unusual instruction to stand 2.5 metres away from the pitch did not go down well with the visitors.

But Fortis hardly spoke on the subject except calling the India head coach “tetchy” ahead of a big game.

Fortis, the ECB curator of the year for the last three years in a row, is obsessed with his job.

Not long after Siraj shattered Gus Atkinson’s off-stump for a famous triumph, Fortis was back near the main square to oversee the preparation for The Hundred games beginning on August 9. Long after the Oval was left vacant, Fortis went about his business with utter nonchalance. During the game, him driving the heavy roller on the pitch before the start of play attracted plenty of attention from the travelling Indian media.

When one inquired about him with the local press, the usual response was that the seven-feet tall Fortis is an interesting fellow.

The Oval had it all while producing a game for the ages. Despite all his quirks, don’t’ be surprised if Fortis bags the best curator award for the fourth year in a row. PTI UNG