The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced a change in venue for the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy 2022-23. The Indian cricket board said that the third Test which was earlier scheduled to take place at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) Stadium in Dharamshala will now be played at the Holkar Stadium in Indore. The decision was taken after BCCI found issues with the HPCA Stadium outfield.
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Now, as the venue has been changed midway, fans were left fuming. While a user was left baffled at BCCI’s decision to change a venue 15 days before a high-profile game, another user called the move pathetic and also suggested that the Indian cricket board must have apologised to the fans.
“Pathetic to just release a venue change statement without apologising to the fans who have already sourced accommodation and flight tickets. It's amazing people still want to pay to this board to watch games when, in return, the fans are being treated like they are sewer rats,” tweeted one user.
Meanwhile, a user shared an old clip wherein Virat Kohli is talking about developing five Test centres in the country so that the teams and fans already know which are the possible venues for a Test series. In the clip, Kohli can be heard batting for five Test centres as other top Test nations like England and Australia do.
"We've been discussing this for a long time now, and in my opinion we should have five Test centres, period," Kohli said, after the conclusion of the Ranchi Test. "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',” Kohli says in the video.
"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. Notably, Virat had said this when he was asked about whether India should restrict the home Tests to the traditional big-city venues - Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi and Bengaluru during the South Africa tour of India in 2019.
