Breaking Ground

The spectator response and the overall conduct of the matches in Pune, Ranchi and Dharamsala — all new Test venues — during the India-Australia series ARE CRITICAL for the future of the longest version of the game in India.

- Vijay Lokapally

When Sachin Tendulkar Suggested taking cricket to new venues,he was making an important proposition. The idea was to create a positive ambience for Test cricket to survive. Playing in front of empty stands can be a demoralising experience and Sachin knows that better.

Test cricket was facing the challenge of attracting spectators to the venues. Measures had to be taken to preserve the popularity of Test cricket.

It is not that the lack of spectator response is a new trend in international cricket. Watching Sunil Gavaskar’s innings during the India-Australia Test in Adelaide in 1985-86 on YouTube, you can see empty stands. The spectator count on the first four days projected on the screen reads a dismal 8,441, 8,741, 7,109 and 4, 091.

The administrators have been facing the problem of wooing spectators to venues for a long time now. First, the advent of limited-overs cricket (50 overs) had threatened the popularity of Test cricket, and now it is the Twenty20 format that has begun taking away spectators from the five-day game.

TEST CRICKET IN AUSTRALIA and England has seen the administrators experimenting with new venues though they have stuck with traditional centres such as Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney (in Australia) and the Lord’s, The Oval, Old Trafford, Trent Bridge, Edgbaston and Headingley (in England).

For India, the current season has been a path-breaking one. Thirteen Tests at home gave India the opportunity to add new venues to its list of Test centres, and the trend was set in motion when Indore hosted the match against New Zealand. It was a roaring success, as Indore made a spectacular start as a Test venue.