When asked about the tepid response in attendance of the Ranchi test, Indian skipper Virat Kohli suggested that India need to have stadiums of big cities as the permanent venues where there is surity of public response in the stands.
The venues of recently concluded freedom series between India and South Africa, which were, Vishakapatnam, Pune and Ranchi conducted only there second tests and therefore it becomes tough for the visiting sides to judge pace and bounce from the playing surfaces of relatively new stadiums, according to No. 1 ODI batsman.
Test playing nations like England, Australia, or South Africa have fixed test venues while venues in India are allotted by rotation.
“We’ve been discussing this for a long time now,” said Kohli, when asked if India should restrict Tests to big cities.
“And, in my opinion, we should have five Test centres. Period. I agree that you have State associations, rotation and giving games and all that… That is fine in T20 and ODI cricket, but for Test cricket teams coming into 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 they’re going to come to watch, crowds,” he said.
“That becomes a challenge already when you’re leaving your shores because when we [India] go to any place we know we’re having four Tests at these venues, this is what the pitch is going to offer. It’s going to be a full stadium, the crowd is behind the team,” he added.
Crowd attendances in this series barring the weekends was very discouraging. According to Indian Skipper if we are looking to keep test cricket alive and exciting then fixing the test matches to big cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai would serve very well. In these venues you get a surity of public attendance in the stands, said indian skipper with a win percentage of 70% against South Africa in tests.
