As per former selector, Dilip Vengsarkar, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) should concentrate on five primary Test venues in the country. His comments came after a huge turnout at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai for the final test against New Zealand.
The same idea has been taken to use by the top test nations like England and Australia to maintain the popularity of the longest format. England have six Test centers – Lord’s, the Oval, Edgbaston, Old Trafford, Leeds, and Nottingham, while Australia have 5 – Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Sydney, and Hobart.
Interestingly, India and Australia will lock horns at the same venues in the upcoming five-match test series, slated to take place from November 22.
Vengsarkar feels test cricket should stick to only five venues in the country and white-ball games can be played in other venues. Namely, he suggested metro cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Chennai, which would witness a large turnout, which is a necessity to keep the longest format relevant.
“The support the Mumbaikars provided to Test cricket was overwhelming. As compared to the other venues during this series, they turned up in huge numbers, even for a dead rubber. I guess the time has come to stage cricket only at Test centers like New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Chennai. The One-Dayers and T20Is can be staged at the rest of the centers,” Vengsarkar told TOI.
Moreover, the former Indian captain thinks the test should be reduced to a four-day game as most of the matches are getting wrapped up under five days.
Virat Kohli also floated the same idea in 2019
In 2019, the then Indian captain Virat Kohli expressed his desire to play Test cricket at only five venues. His comments came after the series which saw Visakhapatnam, Pune and Ranchi host their second-ever test games.
According to Kohli, with fixed venues, the Indian team as well as visiting teams will be well-prepared for the conditions and the kind of crowds who will come to watch the game. Kohli felt that the test games shouldn’t be spread out at venues, where people aren’t expected to turn up.
On being asked whether India should reduce their test centers, Kohli said (via ESPNcricinfo):
“We’ve been discussing this for a long time now, and in my opinion we should have five Test centers, period. I mean, I agree [with] state associations and rotation and giving games and all that, that is fine for T20 and one-day cricket, but Test cricket, teams coming to India should know, ‘we’re going to play at these five centers, these are the pitches we’re going to expect, these are the kind of people that will come to watch, crowds.”
Although crowds in smaller cities doesn’t witness poor attendance, the metro cities usually see people having much more passion for the test cricket. Hence, this move could find favor among the apex board, who could do away with the current rotation policy of awarding test matches to different cities.
