India should have only five Test centres - Virat Kohli

[Ankit_sharma03]

Virat Kohli wants India to play their home Tests at only five venues. He did not name them but said Test cricket in India should be distributed across "strong Test centres" as they are in other countries.

Kohli said this in response to a question about whether India should restrict the home Tests to the traditional big-city venues - Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi and Bengaluru.

India follow a rotation policy to allot their home games in all formats, and South Africa's just-concluded tour took place at three venues that were each hosting just their second-ever Test matches: Visakhapatnam, Pune and Ranchi.

 

"We've been discussing this for a long time now, and in my opinion we should have five Test centres, period," Kohli said, after the conclusion of the Ranchi Test. "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 centres, these are the pitches we're going to expect, these are the kind of people that will come to watch, crowds'."So that becomes a challenge already, when you're leaving your shores, because we go to any place, we know we're having four Test matches in these venues, this is what the pitch is going to offer, it's going to be a full stadium, the crowd's behind the [home] team, and look, you want to keep Test cricket alive and exciting. I totally agree with the fact that we need five Test centres at the max."It can't be sporadic and spread over so many places where people turn up or they don't, so in my opinion, absolutely. You should have five strong Test centres that teams coming to India know that this is where they're going to play."

 

England play most of their Test matches at their six traditional venues - the two London grounds, Lord's and The Oval, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Nottingham. Australia play the bulk of their home Tests in six cities too - Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth and Hobart. In both these countries - and in South Africa and New Zealand as well - there is usually a set order to which cities host which Tests; The Oval always hosts the last Test of the English summer for instance. Also, in the Southern Hemisphere, traditional dates are fixed for certain venues to host their Tests, such as Boxing Day at the MCG or Durban, and the New Year's Tests in Cape Town and the SCG.India, in contrast, spread their Tests all over the country. They've played home Tests at 27 venues overall, and 18 grounds since the turn of the millennium. The major venues have usually hosted the most Tests in this period, but, as Kohli said, sporadically. Mumbai and Chennai, for instance, haven't hosted any Tests since late 2016.Crowds for Test cricket at newer venues in smaller cities and towns has been a talking point for quite a few years, though there isn't a clear pattern to suggest that Tests at all such venues are poorly attended. The three grounds that hosted the series against South Africa are all located at a fair distance from the city centre, and the facilities at some of the grounds aren't particularly spectator-friendly - three-fourths of the stands in Pune, for instance, don't have roofs. Still, though there were no full houses, there was a decent turnout on most days in Visakhapatnam and Ranchi, and over the weekend in Pune.

 

Link -https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/27900161/india-only-five-test-centres-virat-kohli

 

 

 

[Ankit_sharma03]

I kind of agree but we can have more then 5 test centres for sure......5 is to less 

shud look at which venue has had good turnout for test n provided best pitches

[putrevus]

Kohli's sentiments are fine and five is just too less.Banglore,Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkatta one of these five cities should host test in a major series .

 

Banglore and Chennai are best in attracting crowds for test cricket.

[bowl_out]

Been saying this for long.. These five center sound just fine... Maybe add Mohali and Dharamsala to get quick pitches and altitude, but that should be it.

 

[putrevus]

Sidenote who is giving these cricket associations money to build these great stadiums.Having these stadiums in every city is awesome.

[LordPrabhzy]

5 Test Venues are fine... the rest of the tier two cities can host ODI and T20s on a rotational basis. Theres no point of holding test matches in empty stadiums

[Vk1]

I think the rule should be slightly different. We should  play the top two/three ( Eng/Aus/Nz ) teams in the top 6 stadia..  allocate Tier 2 centers to Tier 2 teams.. this should work as an additional motivation for tier 2 teams to start competing against India to get a chance to play in Tier 1 stadia for their next tours.. 

Edited October 22, 2019 by Vk1

[adi B]

I think 5 is ok and we know the big 5 stadiums and cities but there should be a 6th one , being any one of the other state cricket associations  per season,like say 1 season mohali, next pune ,then indore then next and so on 

[sandeep]

Instead of getting stuck on then number, its more important to understand Virat's sentiment.  He wants to play test cricket as an event.  Think boxing day test at the MCG in Australia - its a big deal, on a fixed date, fixed venue, every season.  And it has built up over the years into a massive event.  One that puts a lot of pressure on opponents, while celebrating and valuing the performances of home players even more. 

 

Its time for the BCCI to formalize a proper and regular 'home' season for test matches.  Diwali test match every season at Bombay - imagine the drama.  It will be as big a "thing" as IPL play-offs, but for test cricket.  

[vvvslaxman]

Instead of saying 6 he should have said, grounds with good facilities.  But this is how it was in the 80s. . 

Common venues were

 

Kanpur Green Park

Delhi Kotla

Mumbai Wankhede

Chennai Chepauk

Kolkatta Eden Gardens

Bangalore Chinnaswamy

 

occasionally

Ahmedabad Motera

Hyderbad Lalbahadur shastri

Nagpur Vidharba C.A ground

 

 

 

[Vk1]

37 minutes ago, sandeep said:

Instead of getting stuck on then number, its more important to understand Virat's sentiment.  He wants to play test cricket as an event.  Think boxing day test at the MCG in Australia - its a big deal, on a fixed date, fixed venue, every season.  And it has built up over the years into a massive event.  One that puts a lot of pressure on opponents, while celebrating and valuing the performances of home players even more. 

 

Its time for the BCCI to formalize a proper and regular 'home' season for test matches.  Diwali test match every season at Bombay - imagine the drama.  It will be as big a "thing" as IPL play-offs, but for test cricket.  

yep.. this is how it should be.. creates a culture of sorts even for the TV audience.. but playing such games against lower ranked teams can become a damp squib..

[Gollum]

1 hour ago, sandeep said:

Instead of getting stuck on then number, its more important to understand Virat's sentiment.  He wants to play test cricket as an event.  Think boxing day test at the MCG in Australia - its a big deal, on a fixed date, fixed venue, every season.  And it has built up over the years into a massive event.  One that puts a lot of pressure on opponents, while celebrating and valuing the performances of home players even more. 

 

Its time for the BCCI to formalize a proper and regular 'home' season for test matches.  Diwali test match every season at Bombay - imagine the drama.  It will be as big a "thing" as IPL play-offs, but for test cricket.  

Earlier we used to have a designated Pongal test in Chennai (mid-January), some classics there...shouldn't have stopped that tradition. Good idea about the Mumbai Diwali test, even weather will be fine that time of the year. Likewise Holi test in Delhi and Ugadi test on rotation basis in Bengaluru/Hyderabad/Vizag to finish our home season in last week of March. Kolkata for Christmas test, Motera (once completed, till then in Guj/Raj) for Navratri one etc. We have so many festivals, we can easily have 4-5 such marquee test events almost every home season....during the years we tour RSA/Aus we can still have the Navratri, Diwali, Holi, Ugadi tests. 

 

Coming to OP 5 is too less, my estimate is 10. 4-5 out of these 10 (incl all the 4 'original' metros) should be regular venues/events along the lines of Boxing Day and New Year's tests in RSA/Aus....baaki sab ko rotate karo. 

 

Delhi

Mumbai

Kolkata

Chennai

Hyderabad

Bengaluru

Vizag

Ahmedabad (Rajkot/Jaipur until Motera is fully functional to host the 5 day format)

Dharamsala

Kanpur

 

Mohali, Pune, Ranchi, Nagpur, Indore etc won't fill the seats for tests due to various reasons, but will be blockbusters for shorter formats. Play more white ball cricket here plus other smaller venues like Vadodara, Cuttack, Kochi, T'puram, Lucknow, Guwahati, Dehradun, Raipur etc. Same time develop alternate venues in states where one city overwhelmingly dominates the cricket scene...eg Durgapur in Bengal, Coimbatore in TN, Mysuru or Hubli-Dharwad in K'taka, Amritsar in Punjab etc. Also revive cricket stadiums in Goa, Bhopal, Patna...look at Jammu and NE minus Assam as opportunities to make inroads in the next 10-15 years. 

Edited October 22, 2019 by Gollum

[Gollum]

3 hours ago, bowl_out said:

Been saying this for long.. These five center sound just fine... Maybe add Mohali and Dharamsala to get quick pitches and altitude, but that should be it.

 

Mohali for tests is a bad idea, very poor turnout every single time. So many great moments like SRT surpassing his great rival Lara's test tally in 2008 against Ponting's Aus, Laxman's 4th innings heroics, dismissing SA for 100 in a low run chase in 2015 1st test etc....all played before empty stands. 

 

But Mohali is one of the best venues for white ball cricket, tremendous atmosphere, pitch and outfield both top class. 

 

I want Dharamsala to be given more chances to host tests, liked what I saw in the 2017 decider. 

Edited October 22, 2019 by Gollum

[sandeep]

9 minutes ago, Gollum said:

 

Coming to OP 5 is too less, my estimate is 10. 4-5 out of these 10 (incl all the 4 'original' metros) should be regular venues along the lines of Boxing Day test and New Year's test in RSA/Aus....baaki sab ko rotate karo. 

 

10 home tests every year is unlikely - who will we play against - Keep in mind its always reciprocal - we can't expect teams to come and play against us if we don't give them the same number of games away.   The annual calendar for cricket is filling up fast, and the battles are being fought in the ICC boardrooms.   IPL already has a de facto window.  I wouldn't be surprised if BBL and the "100" go in a similar direction.  Add to that, ODI and T20 bilateral series.  How much room is there on the calendar?   

 

This is the primary reason why the ICC just announced yet another ICC owned tournament and pushed it through against BCCI objections.

[sandeep]

25 minutes ago, Vk1 said:

yep.. this is how it should be.. creates a culture of sorts even for the TV audience.. but playing such games against lower ranked teams can become a damp squib..

At this point, the Boxing day test match at the MCG is such an event, that the opponent doesn't even matter.  Of course a good match up makes it better, but once it becomes established as an "event", it will be popular regardless of opponent.  

[putrevus]

India should start playing day/night tests.It also should have fixed tests like Pongal, Diwali and Dussehra  tests. Dussera should be first test of the season and Pongal can be last test of the season. They can make three tests as iconic tests and make sure they have it every year in a calendar.

 

Dussera test should be at Kolkatta, Diwali test should be at Mumbai and Pongal test should Chennai. So these three tests should  be on calendar every year.

 

Visting teams will also know the schedule , since these will be holidays crowds also will be good.

[Gollum]

4 minutes ago, sandeep said:

10 home tests every year is unlikely - who will we play against.

No...I meant 10 test venues. Not possible to play 10 home tests every season, we can realistically (and should aim to) play somewhere in the 6-8 range. 4-5 for those events (to develop into traditions in the future) we were talking about coinciding with festivals, remaining can be rotated among the other venues. This way over 2 home seasons all those 10 venues will be covered at least once. We need to forget about hosting tests in venues other than this chosen 10. 

[Gollum]

25 minutes ago, putrevus said:

India should start playing day/night tests.

Dew will prevent that from happening, BCCI's pink ball experiment for Duleep Trophy was a farce. 

Quote

It also should have fixed tests like Pongal, Diwali and Dussehra  tests. Dussera should be first test of the season and Pongal can be last test of the season.

Pongal is in mid-Jan, you sure you want home test season to get over so quickly? Besides Jan-Mar has the best weather for cricket in India...no rain interruptions unlike the Aug-Dec stretch. 

Quote

Dussera test should be at Kolkatta, Diwali test should be at Mumbai and Pongal test should Chennai. So these three tests should  be on calendar every year.

Diwali and Pongal choices sound good. Kolkata shouldn't hold the Dussehra test because of severe rain threat. Nov-Mar is best period for the city, minimum chance of rain and cool+sunny weather, perfect for outdoor sports. I propose a Christmas test with 8:30 or latest 9 a.m. start, city comes alive during that week, no better place to be in India that time of the year....not even Goa.  

Edited October 22, 2019 by Gollum

[vice]

1 hour ago, Gollum said:

Mohali for tests is a bad idea, very poor turnout every single time. So many great moments like SRT surpassing his great rival Lara's test tally in 2008 against Ponting's Aus, Laxman's 4th innings heroics, dismissing SA for 100 in a low run chase in 2015 1st test etc....all played before empty stands. 

 

But Mohali is one of the best venues for white ball cricket, tremendous atmosphere, pitch and outfield both top class. 

 

I want Dharamsala to be given more chances to host tests, liked what I saw in the 2017 decider. 

Mohali has been India's fortress in Tests.  Some great test victories for India.  Probably had the best W/L record or atleast one of the best.  But crowd has been poor though most of the times.  That might change with the new stadium being built closer to the city.

Edited October 23, 2019 by vice

[jf1gp_1]

I agree with him. I would have gone with 7 but 5 is fine. More than conditions etc it was the pathetic crowd turn out that is my reason.