Small centres are BCCI’s big hope
Smaller centres could benefit if crowd turnout at the tradition venues in big cities continues to be disappointing, BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur has said. Perturbed by the low attendances at the recently-concluded Mohali Test, the board is willing to explore the option of taking the game to smaller cities, which are not on the international calender so far.
Thakur said they will not hesitate in taking shorter version of the game to the non-traditional venues as well, if the big cities fail to attract large crowd.
“My personal opinion is, if in next three years, if associations like Mohali or any others are unable to draw large crowd for Tests match, then we must look at other smaller venues like Amristar, Jallandar. Even for IPL games, if it is a day game, then these small centres will get more crowd than what we are getting now. There could be a situation after ten years in Dharmshala, where we might have to move away than we might move to Bilaspur,” Thakur said.
The first Test between India and South Africa was virtually played in front of empty stands, even though the ticket prices were slashed to Rs 100. The turnout had been abysmal on Day One of the Test, with barely 2,000 spectators going through the turnstiles. Over the next couple of days, as drama unfolded, the number increased a little but the final figures were still very disappointing. The crowd gave the grand contest a mighty snub.
Low turnout in Tests, however, is not just Mohali’s problem. Stadiums usually full for ODIs or T20s but the traditional format has been struggling to find aficionados for quite some time now. This is contrary to other big Test nations like England, where people still turn up in droves for the five-day game.
BCCI hopes conducting matches at smaller centres will attract larger crowd. Pune, Rajkot, Vizag, Dharamsala, Indore and Ranchi have been approved to host five-day cricket during the Board’s 86th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Mumbai on Monday. This takes the number of Test centres to 16.
Size doesn’t matter
By reaching out to the uncharted territories the BCCI aims to buck the trend. The National Cricket Academy (NCA) chairman and former BCCI president Niranjan Shah said the increasing number of Test matches, too, played a part.
“We will play 13 Tests at home next year – five each against England and Australia and three against New Zealand. As for our permanent Test centres, we’ve already lost Ahmedabad, while Kanpur and Delhi have had their problems. The new centres provide us with more options. All these venues have top-class facilities,” Shah said, speaking to The Indian Express.
“Matches will be allotted by rotation. We will plan it in a way so that every centre gets to host at least one Test match in every two years. Traditional venues might be preferred for marquee series if the visiting teams want to stay in the metros, but it would be advisable to pick the smaller centres for matches against the lesser sides. The new venues will draw bigger crowds. We will tell the host associations to promote Test cricket by going to schools and inviting the kids to come and watch the game for cheap tickets or even for free.
“The state associations must create picnic-like atmospheres inside the stadiums so that fans can come with their families and enjoy themselves while watching cricket. People in the smaller cities don’t get to see their stars very often. Test matches will give them an opportunity,” he added.
BCCI joint-secretary Amitabh Chaudhary concurred. “Yes, we are worried about the poor turnouts in Tests and this is a reason why we’ve a decided to take the game far and wide. The novelty of the whole thing will be the chief attraction to the crowds in smaller cities. We expect them to turn up in numbers. To be honest, the so-called smaller centres in our country are better than some of the established Test venues overseas (West Indies, Sri Lanka and even England) in terms on facilities and accessibility. Also, by moving out of a set pattern we can increase our talent pool – youngsters in those places will realise the importance of Test cricket and thereby will be attracted to it.”
