Reason given is that there is no star player from Emerald Isle to attract crowd into stadium
There seems to be no takers for the three Test matches to be played against Sri Lanka in India during the 2017-18 season.
This has come to light on the eve of Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) tours, fixtures and programme committee meeting in Kolkata to be held on Tuesday. The panel is expected to deliberate on venues for the upcoming home season against Lanka.
This is the fall out India's last home season (2016-17) where an unprecedented 13 Tests were played against New Zealand, England, Bangladesh and Australia.
It was also the period when Supreme Court had frozen the bank accounts of few state associations for failing to comply with the Lodha panel recommendations. Though the Apex court later released funds to stage the matches, most of the associations spent money from their own pockets and some of them are yet to come out of debt.
Another issue which has forced many Test venues to rethink on their strategy of hosting five-day matches is that none of them witnessed a full-house during the last season. And with Lanka being the only team scheduled to play Tests this season, there seems to be no enthusiasm amongst any one of them.
However, all these centres are keen on hosting ODIs and T20s as they believe there would be a good gate money collection.
A top board official denied that the last home season is the reason for finding no takers. "I wouldn't call it as an implication of hosting too many Tests last season. Rather, it is because Sri Lanka isn't the team it is used to be and the team hardly has any star player who will bring fans to the stadium. So, it is understandable that most of them are not keen on hosting the Tests," said the official.
This may have played a role in tweaking the tentative schedule. As per the original plan, Australia was supposed to play seven ODIs and instead they might end up playing now five ODIs and two T20s. The case is similar for New Zealand as they are likely to play three ODIs and as many T20Is as against the five planned.
India currently playing in Sri Lanka is scheduled to play return leg from as early as November to December. The series will also include three ODIs and as many T20s. The Indian season will end on December 24 with the Island team's departure.
This will also mean that by pushing Sri Lanka series into late December, the BCCI in all probability will not send Team India to South Africa before January.
What is important here is why the BCCI will host around eight T20Is in space of three months as there is no World T20 lined up for next year and India had exceeded their limit in 2016 by playing 21 matches, which is the most any team played in a calendar year.
And this year, India have already played four T20 internationals and are likely to finish with 12. Going by BCCI's rotation policy, Nagpur and Delhi are supposed to host Test matches as they were the only one to miss out on a fixture last season.
But Delhi doesn't seem to be keen on hosting a Test and instead have requested for ODIs.
No new Ranji team?
It was soon after the last BCCI Special General Meeting (SGM) in Delhi on July 26 that all the new members of the Board, especially from North-eastern states, hosted a party in the night to celebrate their new status in the powerful cricket board.
They were obviously high on two developments. One, they have a vote to cast in BCCI now as per Supreme Court ruling. Two, they shall be fielding their respective Ranji Trophy teams from the coming season.
The party may have gone on till the wee hours, but none of them had an inclination that "there is still a slip between the cup and the lip".
DNA has also learnt that no new team is likely to be included in the Ranji calendar for the upcoming season. The reason, as per the insiders in BCCI, is straight and simple.
"They may have got a vote as per SC ruling but that doesn't make the new states straight way eligible to field Ranji team. There are processes which they need to follow in order to become eligible in next two to five years," said a source in the BCCI.
Not just the five new states from north east, but the states like Bihar, where dispute between two associations is yet to be resolved, and Uttrakhand are likely to wait longer before fielding their sides in the elite Ranji Trophy.
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