Hyderabad and Rajkot in line to host India's maiden day-night Test
Rajkot and Hyderabad are the front-runners in getting the hosting rights for India's first-ever day-night Test against Windies in October. However, the decision is subject to the approval of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators as they will take a final call on the same.
England and Australia were involved in the first ever Day Night Test back in 2015 and since then, all cricket boards have shown their interest in hosting Test matches under lights. However, BCCI, despite being the richest board in the world, they have not been excited by the prospect of a day night game. It was only last month that acting secretary Amitabh Chowdhry showed interest in organizing one day-night Test in the home series against the Windies.
Windies will arrive in the country later this year for a full-fledged series and if things go well, they may play a match under lights which is supposed to be played either in Hyderabad or Rajkot. Yesterday, Sourav Ganguly had already confirmed that the only T20I of the series will be played at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
"If the Committee of Administrators (CoA) gives its approval, one of the two centres will host the Test under floodlights," a BCCI source told PTI.
The BCCI's tours and fixtures committee yesterday finalized the venues for the Indian home season. The Windies team will play five ODIs and three T20Is. While the ODI matches will be played in Mumbai, Pune, Thiruvananthapuram, Indore, and Guwahati, the three T20Is will be held in Kolkata, Chennai, and Kanpur/Lucknow.
After the Windies' tour, India will also travel to Australia for a two-month long full tour before heading to New Zealand to play five ODIs and two T20Is.
Keeping an eye on the 2019 World Cup, India have decided to play as many limited-overs matches and that's why will they will host Australia for five ODIs and two T20Is in February and March. While Mohali, Delhi, Nagpur, Hyderabad, and Ranchi will host five ODIs, Visakhapatnam and Bengaluru have gotten the chance to host the shortest version of the game.
Yesterday, the meeting was graced by Ganguly in his capacity as the technical committee chairman, BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Chowdhry, General manager of cricket operations, Saba Karim and Ranjan Tiwari. Rahul Johri couldn't attend the meeting as he is in Dubai to attend ICC meeting.
