In 2019, Kohli had talked about taking five Test centers, but the BCCI has decided to hand red-ball matches to every state in the last 10 years.
High time for a change? Will a first-ever Test whitewash at home force the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to make amends to their current policy of Test venues? Did uncertainty over how the pitch would play cause India to lose 0-3 to India? All these are the right questions to be asked. We often talk about juicing the pitches, but not enough is said about the venues where India plays Test cricket.
Former Indian captain and chief selector, Dilip Vengsarkar, has raised the same point after New Zealand bashed India at home. The veteran of the sport talked about how there should be just five venues for Test cricket in India. This idea has been floated before, and even bigger nations who have ample resources like England or Australia follow the same venue policy.
“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 the Times of India.
The three venues chosen for the New Zealand series (Bengaluru, Pune, and Mumbai) don’t see much international red-ball cricket anymore, which makes it tough for players to acclimatise to the conditions. It’s almost like they are playing outside of India. Since 2015, Bengaluru has hosted just 5 Tests, Mumbai 4 and Pune 3. How will the players know what to expect if the frequency of playing at the venue is 2-3 years?
Virat Kohli had voiced the same opinion when he was captain in 2019. Back then, he’d said, “We’ve been discussing this for a long time now, and in my opinion, we should have five Test centers, period. I agree with state associations and rotation and giving games and all that; that is fine for T20 and one-day cricket, but for 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.”
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