Skipper Virat Kohli is of the opinion that India should have five select venues as Test centres in a formula which has long been the tradition of other major cricketing nations such as England and Australia.
England play most of their Test matches at their six traditional venues – Lord’s, The Oval, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Nottingham. Similarly, Australia usually play their home Tests in the summer in six cities – Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth and Hobart. It is a similar case in South Africa and New Zealand as well.
With Test matches scheduled at specific dates each year – Boxing Day Tests at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Durban or the New year’s Test in Cape Town and the Sydney Cricket Ground – it gives the games a sense of an occasion.
India, in contrast, follow a rotation policy to allot their home games in all formats. 27 Indian venues in total have hosted Test matches with as many as 18 new grounds used since the turn of the millennium.
So proud of this amazing team and the hard work which is put in day in and day out.
— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) October 22, 2019
Onwards and upwards 💯💪 pic.twitter.com/NRd7A0HmqD
After the emphatic 3-0 Test victory over the Proteas, Kohli was quizzed during the post-match press conference about restricting home Tests to the big cities of Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.
“We’ve been discussing this for a long time now, and in my opinion we should have five Test centres, period,” Kohli replied.
“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’.
“So that becomes a challenge already, when you’re leaving your shores, because we go to any place, we know we’re having four Test matches in these venues, this is what the pitch is going to offer, it’s going to be a full stadium, the crowd’s behind the home team, and look, you want to keep Test cricket alive and exciting. I totally agree with the fact that we need five Test centres at the max.
“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.”
