Why BCCI needs to limit Test cricket in India to select centres

The BCCI dropped a major announcement on Tuesday, unveiling the calendar for India’s 2023-24 home season with Australia and England set for lengthy tours of the cricket-mad nation.

Australia arrive in September and will play a three-ODI series right before the ICC World Cup and stay back for five T20Is that takes place in November. The focus of the home season, however, will be the five-Test series against England that begins in January and goes on till March, leading to the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Afghanistan arrive for a three T20Is between the two major tours, with the Men in Blue likely to test out their reserves during that series.

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The talking point following the announcement however, was not regarding the choice of teams coming over for the Indian winter, but over the choice of venues, especially for the England Tests.

Given the history between the two teams that goes all the way back to 1932, India and England enjoy a storied rivalry in the ‘Gentleman’s Game’ that only became more competitive as the years passed by. And a Test series between these two heavyweights, regardless of the nation hosting it, is among the standout bilateral fixtures of the modern era.

The BCCI’s choice of venues for the series however, has left many a follower of the game scratching their head. The venues that have been finalised for the series are Hyderabad (25-29 January), Visakhapatnam (2-6 February), Rajkot (15-19 February), Ranchi (23-27 February) and Dharamsala (7-11 March).

Though each of the aforementioned venues have hosted Tests in the past, the BCCI decided against picking from India’s traditional Test centres — Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium, Kolkata’s Eden Gardens, Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium and New Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium. Or even Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium, the largest cricket stadium which has to have become the current BCCI’s leadership’s first-choice venue for all important fixtures, including the final of this year’s World Cup.

One could argue the fact that the BCCI was looking to award more games to venues that are not part of the World Cup extravaganza, to try and give fans in those cities a slice of cricketing action during this season. The World Cup will be hosted in 10 cities and Hyderabad is the only city from that list that gets to host games in the bilateral season, including the first England Test.

But in doing so, BCCI might just be undermining the Test format, especially taking the opposition into account. The ICC World Cup no doubt is cricket’s showpiece event even if the ODI format itself has come under the scanner since the advent of the T20 format. And it is understandable that the most premier of venues will have to be reserved for that tournament, with the most iconic grounds booked for marquee fixtures including the knockouts.

But a Test series between India and England isn’t just like any other bilateral series, especially in the aftermath of both the BCCI and the Indian cricket team’s rise since the turn of the millennium as well as England’s own massive improvement across formats in the previous decade. India, after all, plays some of its fiercest cricket with England and with meetings against Pakistan limited to ICC and ACC events since 2008, their bilateral rivalry is perhaps at level, or second only to Australia.

Thus, the absence of India’s premier Test venues in the England Tests does send out the wrong message on the part of the Indian board, even if not intentional. In each of England and Australia’s last two Test series’ in India, all of which have had a minimum of four Tests, the BCCI has included at least one match in a traditional Test venue.

The 2016-17 series against England — which also had Vizag and Rajkot as the venues — the last two Tests took place in Mumbai and Chennai. In the 2021 series that took place shortly before the devastating second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India, Chennai and Ahmedabad divided the four Tests between themselves, with the latter hosting a day-night fixture.

The HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala, which was supposed to host the third Test in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy earlier this year before the match was moved to Indore in the eleventh hour, has gained importance as a Test venue and it is understandable, given it rivals the picturesque setting of Cape Town’s Newlands and Queenstown’s John Davies Oval.

While a match or two can take place in Dharamsala, the BCCI needs to ensure that a majority of matches are kept in the premier Test centres to not only ensure proper Test turnouts, but to also maintain overall quality.

Kohli among leading names supporting this theory

It is something former captain and batting superstar Virat Kohli had also said during a press conference not long back. During the 2019 Test series against South Africa at home, after the series finale in Ranchi, Kohli suggested India should have only “five Test centres”.

“We’ve been discussing this for a long time now, and in my opinion we should have five Test centres, 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 centres, these are the pitches we’re going to expect, these are the kind of people that will come to watch, crowds’.

“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,” Kohli, who was the captain across formats back then, said.

And it’s not just Kohli saying this. Indian spin legend and former head coach Anil Kumble backed Kohli’s statement.

“I think it is important for Test cricket to promote these centres where people would know that these are the centres where you are going to play Test match cricket in prior to the start of the season so that you can market Test cricket and you can make sure that the crowd come in,” ‘Jumbo’ had said back in 2019.

Read | Kohli’s call for Test centres reasonable, empty stadiums cause of concern

It is a standard practice followed by most other cricketing nations. Australia might have the odd Test in Canberra against lower-ranked sides, but will rarely stray away from the big five — Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane — for the Ashes and other big-ticket bilateral contests.

For now, the Indian team and its fans will have to make do with what has been decided, and hope for a cracker of a series between these two sides between January and March.

Who knows, the fact that Test cricket is taking place in some of the lesser-known venues could actually be a blessing-in-disguise for Rohit Sharma and Co as they aim to maintain their decade-long unbeaten run at home against the Englishmen.

The upcoming series might just be the toughest assignment yet for the ‘Bazball’ brigade.