(Image Credit: @rushiii_12 via X)
The current India vs West Indies Test match in Ahmedabad is reportedly experiencing extremely low spectator turn ups in the first two days, raising a question on declining popularity of Test cricket in India. Although the opening ceremony was held on the occasion of the public holidays of Gandhi Jayanti and Dussehra, the audience in the stadium was significantly lower than expected, and the stands appeared almost empty after the first day.
Fans and spectators have used a comment made by Virat Kohli in the past when he had urged a more discriminative generalization of hosting Test matches in India, that only a few stadiums approximately five should be used as regular Test venues. That line of reasoning was to make sure that Test cricket builds strong centers, consistent quality of pitches, and consistent attendance by the spectators, as opposed to being distributed all over the place with inconsistent involvement. Kohli made the comment in 2019, following a Test in Ranchi, where he said that ‘Too many rotating stadiums adversely affected the interest of crowds, and made it difficult to maintain a lively Test culture, We must get 5 stadiums and fix them up to host Test matches …Test cricket, visiting teams need to understand, we are going to play five centres in India, look, you want to keep Test cricket alive and exciting’.
That suggestion has since been floated again with low attendance in Ahmedabad with fans stating it appears to have been prescient. There are tweets suggesting that the attendance at Test matches in less popular or non traditional venues is poor, but there are also counter arguments that the dissemination of the game contributes to regional participation. This has rekindled the argument on the manner in which Tests should be arranged and hosted in the future in India. Is it time that the BCCI and cricket authorities consider putting Test hosting in a limited number of centers in order to ensure that the fans will always have an interest and quality in their games? Or is there anything in making the matches more widely spread to smaller cities or less conventional cities with variable attendance? The empty Ahmedabad Test has added immediate urgency to that conversation amongst fans, administrators and analysts.
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