Saba Karim, former India wicketkeeper and BCCI’s GM, Operations, shared his views on the possibility of India hosting and finally playing a day-night Test later this year. India may host West Indies in October and a day-night Test could be staged. With dwindling spectators in Tests and the success of pink-ball cricket overseas, BCCI may finally jump into the pink-ball wagon.
“We are exploring the possibility,” said Karim. “There is a strong reason why we should have day/night Tests. If you look at it from a global perspective, then there are other nations who have gone ahead and played day-night Tests with some excellent results. They drew a large attendance. The ICC I believe has come up with a statement that all of us need to sit together to work out a system to save Test cricket. One of the suggestions was to have day-night Tests.”
The first day-night Test was played between Australia and New Zealand at Adelaide Oval in 2015. Since then eight day-night Tests have been played, out of which four have been hosted in Australia (three in Adelaide and one in Brisbane), two at Dubai, one each at Birmingham and Port Elizabeth.
New Zealand will host England in day-night Test later this month at Auckland, while day-night Tests will also debut in the Caribbean when Sri Lanka take on West Indies at Bridgetown in June.
India and Bangladesh are the only sides to have neither played nor hosted a day-night Test.
Player contracts for state associations
Karim also hinted that state associations too will join hands with the BCCI in handing out central contracts for men and women cricketers. About the new additions to domestic cricket, next season’s Ranji knockouts will see home and away system.
Karim also confirmed that India will continue to follow the procedure of letting a player play one Under-19 World Cup.
“Everyone in the ICC has appreciated us on the issue that India is the only country in the world that allows players to play just one World Cup. It helps more and more players to come through. That is why you see such a healthy state of junior cricket in India,” added Saba Karim.
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.