They are the curators, and what a busy past few weeks they have had preparing the pitches for firstly, the Australian Country Cricket Championships, and secondly, the annual Bendigo Country Week carnival.

Last week’s Country Week featured 47 games on the back of the Australian Country Cricket Championships that included 15 matches played over seven days, plus the challenges of dealing with inclement weather during the tournament.

While the sport pages of the Addy were filled with photos of players, scores and stories from the games during the two events - which were both major money-spinners for the city - those matches couldn’t go ahead without the tireless work put in by the curators on the decks beforehand.

When it comes to curating, the only cricket wickets I’ve prepared were when I was a kid for those epic backyard summer stouches with my mates.

The extent of my curating skills were as basic as it gets – set the mower blades low, mow a strip and give the pitch plenty of water.

I was always proud of my backyard decks, but a quick Google search on the subject shows the art of curating is an intricate caper as highlighted by a “Basic Guide to Turf Cricket Preparation” written by John Shannon.

The “basic” guide is 56 pages in length covering all aspects from the preparation, citing an 11-day guide to getting a deck ready - which in itself highlights just how complex, time-consuming and at times monotonous curating can be - to pitch recovery.

I also found the New South Wales Cricket Association’s “Management of Turf Cricket Pitches and Outfields.” It is 96 pages long.

Reading through the “basic” guide, one of the key points that stood out was the line: “good pitches promote the game and develop good cricketers”.

It’s a line that was reflective of the ACCC carnival – the pinnacle for country cricketers – when Bendigo was lauded for the pitches it presented.

Those pitches were not only enjoyed by the cricketers and spectators, but it provided Bendigo with fantastic promotion in terms of proving its capacity to host such events and will only help our cause in the future when aiming to attract more events like it.

For such positive feedback to be received, hours upon hours of work was put in by the curators to ensure the players of the ACCC and later Bendigo Country Week had the best possible conditions to show off their skills.

But the ACCC and Bendigo Country Week form only a small part of the cricket action in Bendigo this summer.

Every week curators - such as White Hills' Damien "Babsy" Nowell (pictured) - are giving up their time to prepare decks in the Bendigo District Cricket Association so that players from first XI to under-18s can enjoy all that the game of cricket offers.

Not to mention getting decks ready for Twenty20 and representative games.

To all the curators who made the ACCC and Bendigo Country Week such a resounding success, and continue to prepare BDCA pitches every week, keep up the good work.