Supreme Court Committee of Administrators strike again: Stop Day Night Tests in India

[Malcolm Merlyn]

 

 

 

The BCCI's plans to stage India's first-ever day-night Test in October is mired in a power struggle between the two power centres that currently run the board. A sharply worded mail from Vinod Rai, chief of the Committee of Administrators, to Amitabh Choudhury, the board's acting secretary, placed the proposal on hold and criticised what Rai called the "cavalier way of taking policy decisions".

 

In his mail, Rai said that discussions on the issue needed to go beyond India coach Ravi Shastri, who had been consulted, and should include the players, the administration and the fans, "your greatest stakeholder". It laid down several conditions that needed to be met before the plan could be discussed again.

 

India is the only major cricket-playing country to have not hosted or played a day-night Test. This, despite apparent openness to the idea from India captain Virat Kohli, who had called the inaugural day-night Test between Australia and New Zealand in 2015 a "landmark" moment. The game's administrators, including the ICC, have urged member countries to support day-night cricket as a means of boosting audience figures across the Test world.

 

The issue had its origins last week, when Choudhury emailed Shastri, asking for his help in "finding remedies to the ever diminishing" interest of fans in Test cricket. In his email, dated February 17, Choudhury said that even popular venues like Kolkata could not reverse the "alarmingly poor figures of attendance". He said that to counter such a challenge, the BCCI needed to apply "innovative" thinking, and the day-night Test - provided the dew factor was managed - was a "natural" option.

 

In his response, Shastri said that another option to attract a big audience was to play Test matches against "tier 2" opponents "like West Indies" in tier-two cities. "As far as day-night cricket goes, it can be tried out as an experiment with a game starting at 12 and where the last session is played under lights. It will be interesting to see how much part dew will play.

 

"Against a team like West Indies, it has to be played in a tier 2 city without a doubt. To get in the crowds it doesn't matter if it's a day game or day-night game. What's important is a tier 2 city."

 

Choudhury then placed Shastri's suggestions at a discussion table at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai, in a meeting with the board's management team led by Rahul Johri (the BCCI's chief executive officer) and Saba Karim (general manager, operations), and the national selectors.

 

The following day, February 21, Choudhury emailed details of that meeting, along with the discussions he had with Shastri, to the BCCI's two other office bearers - CK Khanna (acting president) and Anirudh Chaudhry (treasurer). "Under the circumstances, we will go ahead with the proposal [of] choosing one of the two Windies Test matches for the first ever day-night game on Indian soil," Choudhury said.

 

The email was forwarded to Rai, whose reply leaves the plan in limbo. Rai told Choudhury that if he felt taking the views of "four persons sitting in cricket centre [the BCCI headquarters]" constituted "all stakeholders", then it was a "very misplaced viewpoint".

 

According to Rai, the "greatest stakeholder" was the public, and they needed to be factored in too. "This issue is placed on hold," Rai told Choudhury in an email, copying in the rest of the board's office bearers along with Johri and Karim.

 

He said the idea could not be taken forward till the specifics of the proposed day-night Test were worked out, including the venue, timings, security arrangements and costs to the BCCI. He also said the visiting team would have to be consulted to "factor in their viewpoints".

 

"Ravi may have been consulted, but I would like to consult the players whose body clock over five consecutive days [and] will have to get accustomed to a new timing," Rai said.

 

Once all these things were looked into, Rai said the BCCI would put forth the view in the media for a "consultative process".

 

Choudhury responded to Rai on February 23, saying "the effort was only to impede the fast disappearing spectator support for Test cricket."

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/22555014/bcci-power-struggle-puts-day-night-test-plans-hold

 

The world is playing day night test but this 70yr old guy has a problem with it. What does he want? A referendum to be held in India?

 

This CoA has pushed Indian cricket back by 5 years. The faster these idiots leave BCCI, the better.

[Trichromatic]

Wonder COA was holding back DRS implementation for so long in Indian games.

 

They would have been blamed for taking Indian cricket 20 years back.

[cowboysfan]

As the "greatest stakeholder" i freaking approve of day night tests and i also dont want to see Tests played in places like Mohali where nobody wants to see it.

[Number]

What next ?

Vinod Rai instructing Dhawan to improve his shot selection and Bhuvi his seam position.

[Prateek3801]

Test cricket is on a slow decline, and the origination of Day-Night tests was a decent enough step to make test cricket more relevant in the eyes of the "general" audience, I am not talking about hardcore cricket fans who love test cricket. 

 

It's seriously ridiculous to make such a decision. Test cricket is in dire need of resurgence and by taking such a decision, we are going 2 step backwards. Every nation should be equally responsible towards contributing for test cricket's resurgence.

[Prateek3801]

This is certainly ridiculous.

Edited February 24, 2018 by Prateek3801

[Prateek3801]

1 hour ago, cowboysfan said:

As the "greatest stakeholder" i freaking approve of day night tests and i also dont want to see Tests played in places like Mohali where nobody wants to see it.

These are negative measures. You need to be affirmative. One must think of taking measures to attract more viewers rather than removing a venue. 

 

I live in Chandigarh and I do feel bad when you say this however I get your point, you are not wrong when you say this because this area is seriously not much interested in Test cricket. But i feel that the measure you suggested won't be the right step, it would be better if BCCI/COA undertakes steps to attract more viewers in a test match.

 

[chewy]

Time to allow coloured clothing, maybe shrink it 4  days, and penalise flat patta tracks 

[Vilander]

1 hour ago, chewy said:

Time to allow coloured clothing, maybe shrink it 4  days, and penalise flat patta tracks 

cringe

 

penalise pattas for sure

[mancalledsting]

6 hours ago, Prateek3801 said:

These are negative measures. You need to be affirmative. One must think of taking measures to attract more viewers rather than removing a venue. 

 

I live in Chandigarh and I do feel bad when you say this however I get your point, you are not wrong when you say this because this area is seriously not much interested in Test cricket. But i feel that the measure you suggested won't be the right step, it would be better if BCCI/COA undertakes steps to attract more viewers in a test match.

 

It's more to do with parking arrangements/access to stadium. When new state of the art stadium is built nearby, you'll be able to re-evaluate and gauge demand better 

[Khota]

How many days of cricket these Administrators have played that they can give opinion on this topic? If this is not abuse of power by power drunk jackasses then what is? Shame.

[mancalledsting]

6 hours ago, Prateek3801 said:

These are negative measures. You need to be affirmative. One must think of taking measures to attract more viewers rather than removing a venue. 

 

I live in Chandigarh and I do feel bad when you say this however I get your point, you are not wrong when you say this because this area is seriously not much interested in Test cricket. But i feel that the measure you suggested won't be the right step, it would be better if BCCI/COA undertakes steps to attract more viewers in a test match.

 

It's more to do with parking arrangements/access to stadium. When new state of the art stadium is built nearby, you'll be able to re-evaluate and gauge demand better 

[Rasgulla]

 Think they are protecting Rohit sharma's career.. Pink ball swinging under lights = Rohit eating maggi

Edited February 24, 2018 by Rasgulla

[Tattieboy]

Can anybody explain to me the purpose of the new 110,000 seater in Ahmedabad except it's a MM.

When it's completed in 2019 how many times in next ten years will it be anything like full? Unless an IPL franchise will start to play out of it.?

[bowl_out]

Wasn't CoA's job just to investigate IPL conflict of interest? 

Why are they trying to run BCCI?

[Cricketics]

People make big deal when they hear “Day-Night” test cricket.

The regular test match starts around 10 AM or 9:30 AM and durinf Day-Night games, it will just start few hours later and in most

countries 1 and half session will be played in the dark only. Its not that the game is ending at mid night or at 1 am. In most countries it will get over around 9PM.

 

We need to be more open to the ideas.

 

All the day night tests have been fun to follow so far.

 

 

 

 

[Malcolm Merlyn]

Does the CoA and Mr.Rai know that India is the only major test nation not to play a day night test?

Is Mr. Rai aware that his Co CoA member approved a dole out of 15L to her own sister? Is that not conflict of interest?

Will Mr. Rai stepdown in 4 months time when he turns 70? Like he wants bcci chiefs to?

This whole CoA was a disaster from the start.

Only one man had any idea of how to run bcci which was like a corporate giant and that was Vikram Limaye.

Diana Edulji is a nobody in Indian cricket. Its a shame she gets to run BCCI while a Kapil Dev or a Gavaskar or Laxman or Srinath or so many big names dont.

Ramchandra Guha was another laughable selection, a historian to run cricket.

Now we have Diana Edulji and Vinod Rai running indian cricket. This is utter nonsense.

[King Tendulkar]

3 hours ago, Tattieboy said:

Can anybody explain to me the purpose of the new 110,000 seater in Ahmedabad except it's a MM.

When it's completed in 2019 how many times in next ten years will it be anything like full? Unless an IPL franchise will start to play out of it.?

They building a 110,000 seater . Wow . That sounds amazing 

 

[Vilander]

When will they start using dehradun cricket stadium after it becomes dilapidated

[Trichromatic]

CoA - Discuss D/N tests with all the stakeholders, not just Shastri and put a hold on to the idea till the final decision.

 

What sunnyji read - CoA stops DN tests in India.