Low turnouts make BCCI consider smaller centers for Test matches

[Karan114]

Low turnouts make BCCI consider smaller centers for Test matches Press trust of India Last updated on Tuesday, 15 November 2011 Kolkata: The Indian Cricket Board is mulling the idea of organising Test matches in smaller centers to promote the longest form of the game after seeing the poor response in major venues like Eden Gardens and New Delhi's Feroz Shah Kotla during the ongoing India-West Indies series. Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the second Test, BCCI's chief administrative officer, Prof Ratnakar Shetty on Tuesday said they were thinking of organising matches at non-Test venues. "We are planning to bring Test matches to the non-Test venues. I think we will get more crowd by making this. We will discuss this in our next meeting," Shetty told reporters at Eden Gardens on Tuesday. But he said they have to discuss the matter with the International Cricket Council as the ODI venues need to follow certain guidelines in order to host Test matches. "Certain guidelines are followed for the organisation of Test matches. Not all the ODI venues have all the facilities required to host a Test. We have to discuss this with ICC." The second Test began on Monday with less than one thousand people in attendance, with the entire day's turnout improving marginally to 10,000 at a stadium, which has in the past witnessed one-lakh plus spectators. Even on day 2, when India feasted on the bowlers with tons from VVS Laxman and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the numbers did not improve with just about 8,000 in attendance. Even during the Kotla Test, a similar sight was witnessed. "Everywhere it's the same. The Board is thinking strongly about it. We are also planning to encourage school children by distributing them free tickets," he said. He said it was not feasible to have day-night Tests. Indian batsman VVS Laxman said he was surprised to see the Eden empty. "Definitely surprised at the number of spectators. Even during one-day, we always felt Kolkata is one place where you get a lot of support. I don't know the reason behind it. "We have to find out the exact reason for the crowd not coming and think about a solution." http://sports.ndtv.com/wi-ind-2011/news/item/181069-low-turnouts-make-bcci-consider-smaller-centers-for-test-matches

[Ultimate_Game]

Blame the venue after scheduling a Monday-Friday Test :haha:

[Pagalpanti]

"We have to find out the exact reason for the crowd not coming and think about a solution."

:haha: They know the reason very well, over-kill. We've been playing cricket non-stop.

[Magneto]

Also, the opposition needs to be of top quality to attract any interest.

[zep1706]

It's the same age old demand and supply theory.

[ganeshran]

WC, IPL,Champions League,England ODI series and now Windies tests at home. How much cricket do you want spectators to turn out for?

[saneindian]

Which are these smaller centers? Jaipur, Indore, Rajkot, Vizag, Cuttack, Kochi are the 6 options. Jaipur and Vizag would be the strongest contenders . But again unless the BCCI ensures people can buy tickets easily across the city (and not by standing in queues outside a branch of a bank located somewhere in one corner of the cities), attendance would continue to be an issue. At Kotla, the ground wasn't even 40% full and yet you had tickets being available only in black. Will the BCCI look at that?

[punjabi_khota]

Mohali

[saneindian]

Mohali

Mohali is already a test center and tests there have been played with 500 spectators (Eng 2008 and Aus 2010).

[carnish]

spread it to places like vizag, mysore, jaipur, ranchi, bhubaneswar, rajkot where people dont see IPL and CLT20.... let the ppl of delhi and kolkata miss out on tests because of not going even when the ticket prices were brought down

[Sir john]

Dharamsala :agree:

[cricket_usa]

Come on man, if these morons are going to schedule cricket matches on banker's hrs who is going to come to the stadium to watch the game. They should have scheduled it in a way atleast 2 days are on weekends.

[Show_stopper]

Dharamsala :agree:

+1...venues like these could restore the balance between the bat and the ball in the subcontinent and make viewing of Test matches a bit less painful.

[jashan83]

Day & Night Tests are the answer

[carnish]

Day & Night Tests are the answer

tests cant be day and night.... white ball cannot last for a long time and pink ball experiment is probably going to fail

[achilles]

[carnish]

:hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical:

[Pagalpanti]

:cantstop:

[Sachinism]

Yes start taking games away from certain venues, if the state boards can't be bothered to make an effort to sell tickets, don't give the games. I find it surprising how little is being done to promote the matches and tickets, isn't that their main source of revenue?

[Sachinism]

Actually Modi has been promoting @testingtimes :hysterical: