Day-Night Tests To Bring Cricket Lovers To The Ground
Holding an extreme view and carting the ball out of the park is what interests him most. He is a hard hitter at all times. Fasten your seatbelts and read.
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By Slogger
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Holding an extreme view and carting the ball out of the park is what interests him most. He is a hard hitter at all times. Fasten your seatbelts and read.
View all posts by this Author
In an excellent move, the new BCCI president Saurav Ganguly wrote to the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCC) to find out whether they would agree to play day and night Test matches in the upcoming series. Ganguly did this after consulting Indian captain Virat Kohli who agreed to the proposal. The BCC agreed after a small delay (as they were facing a players' revolt along with the ICC ban on Shakib ul Hassan, their top player) and now, Kolkata's iconic Eden Gardens would be hosting the first day and night Test match in India in November end.
This is a good move because Kohli was miffed at empty stands during India's Test with South Africa in Ranchi and had suggested that the BCCI should limit Test centres to the major metro cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bengaluru. While there are many considerations to be made (as the BCCI has regional stakeholders and a rotational policy that dictates which match is to be held where) in adopting that suggestion, Ganguly has done the next best thing by introducing day-night Test matches.
With the limited-overs version of the game gaining massive popularity in recent times, Test matches have lost out. But cricket aficionados still consider them as the ultimate test of the strength of a team. Now, with results coming up in almost all Test matches due to various reasons (not the least because of helpful pitches and the lack of grafting by most modern batsmen who have been reared on the instant variety of cricket), there is a renewed interest in Test matches.
But even those who seriously want to watch matches on the ground cannot make it as they are held on working days and time. If matches are scheduled from 2 pm to 10 pm, then many cricket lovers can make it to the ground at 5 pm or 6 pm after their office is over. Of course, getting transport back home at the late finishing hour will play in the back of their minds but the local administration can work that out by asking public transport to serve till late hours on those days. Then in India, the dew will be a factor after nightfall. The public needs to be brought back to the grounds for watching Test matches and having day-night matches is the right way to do this.
