The new-look Wankhede is set for Test debut. The stadium, renovated extravagantly for the World Cup, is almost certain to host a Test against the West Indies.
The new-look Wankhede is set for Test debut. The stadium, renovated extravagantly for the World Cup, is almost certain to host a Test against the West Indies. It will be the first Test at the venue in more than five years.
Sources in the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have indicated that the Wankhede is in line for a Test match against the West Indies later this year. The West Indies are to visit India in November-December for a full fledged return tour of three Tests and five ODIs.
The BCCI’s Tours, Programmes and Fixtures Committee will be meeting here on June 18 and a decision on the venues will be taken there. The other Tests could be in New Delhi and Chennai. “We are hoping to get a Test against the West Indies,” said an official of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA).
Wankhede has hosted the West Indies six times in Tests between January 1975 and October 2002. The last Test at the venue was against England in March 2006 and the last in the city was against Sri Lanka (at CCI) in December 2009. For the record, India had won that Test to become world No 1.
As per the BCCI’s rotation policy, Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi are due for a Test. All the three venues had declined to host Tests in previous series because of the renovation or pitch work. Besides West Indies, England are scheduled to tour India in October-November for five ODIs and a Twenty20 International. The MCA is also hoping to get an ODI against England. The Twenty20 match, it may be recalled, has been allotted to Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
Apart from deciding on the dates and venues for the two international series, the tours and fixtures committee will also come up with dates for the upcoming domestic season. The groupings for the Ranji Trophy will also be made at the meeting. The committee is headed by Arun Jaitley.
A meeting of the umpires committee, headed by Niranjan Shah, is also scheduled for the weekend and it is reliably learnt that the BCCI would come out with the names of the Indian umpires for the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) international panel of umpires.
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