BCCI must now accept what Virat Kohli said 5 years ago

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The second match of the Test series between India and Bangladesh has started at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur. The first match of the series was played in Chennai, after which the clash is now taking place in Kanpur. The second Test started with rain and due to this only 35 overs could be played on the first day. Due to rain, Team India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and decided to bowl first, which is rarely seen in India. At the same time, the poor condition of the Kanpur stadium has also come to the fore during this time. These two three events related to the Kanpur Test suddenly reminded us of what former captain Virat Kohli had said exactly 5 years ago regarding the organization of Test cricket, which was ignored by the BCCI, but the truth is that the time has come to accept it. What is that thing and why is it needed, we will tell you this further.

It was in October 2019 when the third match of the Test series was played between India and South Africa in Ranchi. Team India won this match very easily and cleanly swept the series 3-0. After that victory, Virat Kohli said something that caught everyone's attention because Virat was a very powerful captain at that time and his words were listened to anyway, but what he said then was rarely heard in Indian cricket before. Giving his opinion in the press conference after the victory, Virat said that like countries like Australia, England, and South Africa, 5 venues should be fixed for Test cricket in India too. He said that this will not only help Team India but also foreign teams to know what kind of conditions they are coming to play in and what kind of public support they will get there.

Virat Kohli's statement came because although a Test match was organized in Ranchi, the number of spectators who came to watch the Test match was not as high as the number of spectators who come to venues like Mumbai, Chennai, or Kolkata. But should this be the only reason? It is a simple fact that to save Test cricket, it is important to have the interest of the spectators. The more people watch it, the more this format will remain alive, but it is also true that not every city has fans of Test cricket who like this format completely. In England and Australia, there are 4 or 5 venues that are specifically decided and Test matches are played in these venues every year because fans always come to watch the matches at these venues.

Secondly, the venues are announced many months in advance, so they are prepared accordingly and fans also plan their holidays accordingly. Be it Lord's or Edgbaston in England, MCG or Gabba in Australia, fans come to watch Test cricket every year and the stadium remains almost full for the entire four or five days. This is not the case with India, where due to having more than 2 dozen Test venues, BCCI often announces them 3-4 months before the series because it knows that if a ground is not ready on time, it can shift it somewhere else, as was done from Dharamshala to Indore during the Australia series last year. Apart from the teams, this is also an injustice to the fans. A day before the Kanpur Test started, news came that a part of the stadium was not safe, so tickets were not sold there. If the venues were fixed, such a situation would not arise.

Apart from this, familiarity with the conditions is also very important and its example was seen on the first day of the Kanpur Test. Test matches have been taking place at the Green Park Stadium since 1952 but in the last few years, they have reduced a bit. Still, it is believed that the pitch here is helpful for spinners. In such a situation, as always, after winning the toss, batting first is chosen because it proves to be good for batting in the beginning. But the rainy season confused Indian captain Rohit and the management and they chose to bowl first, and also kept 3 fast bowlers because they thought that the cloudy sky and humidity would help the fast bowlers but this did not happen.

Now if Kanpur had always been a fixed Test venue and Team India played a match here in every home season, then perhaps the team management would have known that despite conditions like rain, spin would dominate here. In such a situation, not only would they have chosen to bat first but also kept 3 spinners and only 2 pacers. That is, the home team itself is unaware of the conditions and has to bear the brunt of it. Also, 5-6 fixed venues would have the advantage that the matches would have been scheduled keeping in mind the weather conditions of a venue every year, due to which the game would have been less affected by rain or other reasons.

Why doesn't this idea become a reality?

Now the question is, would the people in charge of BCCI not know this? Why does BCCI not do this despite examples being available all over the world? There are some special reasons for this, one of the major reasons being the politics of the board. Actually, more than 30 state cricket associations across the country are a part of BCCI and except for a few, all others have voting rights. Now if someone wants to gain power in BCCI, he will need the votes of these state associations. For this, some promises must be made, in the distribution of Team India's matches, especially Test matches, is important. From the President of BCCI to the Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Joint Secretary, the officials on the most important posts come from different state associations and hence they make every effort to get matches for their state association as well. This is the reason why the talk of 5-6 venues does not come true.

Apart from this, the state associations also need to earn money for the maintenance of their stadiums, for which they get funds from BCCI but they also pay a separate amount for hosting any match. Till a few years ago, the state associations used to pay a fee of Rs 25 lakh for hosting a Test match, and Rs 15 lakh each for ODI and T20 International. This means that the state associations do not want to miss this opportunity to earn money and for this, they lobby with BCCI. In such a situation, there were no attempts to fix 5-6 Test venues, and the way BCCI operates, it does not seem to happen in the near future either.