One Day-Night Test In Every Series Is Important: Sourav Ganguly

Published - 08 Jul 2020, 02:11 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:31 AM

Sourav Ganguly (Credit: Twitter)

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has said holding one day-night Test in a series is important to get people back inside the stadiums. With the meteoric rise of T20 cricket, Test cricket’s popularity has taken a big beating. Test matches hardly attract any big crowd and the ICC is taking several measures to make sure the oldest format of the game remains popular among the fans.

One of those measures is the day-night cricket played with a pink ball. The first such game was played in 2015 between Australia and New Zealand. The likes of Pakistan, South Africa, West Indies and England soon followed suit. India, however, were initially reluctant to try out the day-night Tests before finally playing their first such game in November last year against Bangladesh.

Sourav Ganguly played a key role in convincing Virat Kohli & Co. to play the Test. Days after taking charge as the BCCI president, the former India skipper convinced Team India to play the pink-ball Test. And he has now opined that it should be a regular affair in every Test series.

“I think day-night Test, one match in a series is important because cricket needs everyone back. We played the pink-ball Test in Kolkata and I do not think it was a normal India Bangladesh Test match,” Sourav Ganguly told opening batsman Mayank Agarwal in a chat posted on the official website of BCCI.

“I hope the match would have gone on for five days, in just three days we managed to get 3,50,000 people into the ground,” he added.

There are also calls from several quarters to start four-day Test matches in order to attract the crowd. Reports also suggested that the ICC wass contemplating mandatory four-day Tests in the next rights cycle from 2023 to 2031. However, Sourav Ganguly has said that he is not a fan of this particular idea.

“I think innovation in every aspect of life is important. I am not a big fan of four-day Tests because I think a lot of matches would not finish then. You have five days, you approach it differently. I do not think there is any need to tinker with the Test format. For me, Test cricket is the best and toughest format,” said the legendary player.