Don’t want champions like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma playing in empty stadiums, says Sourav Ganguly
Sourav Ganguly wants to take the pink ball variation of Test cricket to all parts of India as he believes players like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma should not be playing in empty stadiums. Although Bangladesh succumbed to the hosts in under three days, the Kolkata Test was a grand success.
It may not have been fiercely contested at all, but Eden Gardens played the perfect host for the historic day-night Test match, as the stands were filled on all three days. It did more than enough to bring back memories for Ganguly of a time when Test cricket was more popular in India.
“I remember the 2001 Test (India-Australia). There were more than 100,000 people in this stadium and you don’t want champions like Kohli, Rohit or Ishant to play in front of empty stands. So, I am extremely happy to see this,” Ganguly told Star Sports.
“We wanted to do this for Test cricket. It is so important. People were not turning up for Test cricket. We did a lot of things (promotion) during and before this Test. It was sold out all throughout even today though the game was expected to finish early,” he said.
Although Kohli welcomed the move, he has since clearly stated that the day-night version must not be a regular feature. Ganguly promised to speak to Kohli soon but insists that the slightly modified Test format should move to all parts of the country.
“Hopefully it will spread to other parts of the country and I am convinced it will. This will revive Test cricket because it is different for people. Everything changes with time including people’s taste,” he said.
Despite all the talk during the build-up to the game, Ganguly did not feel conditions were drastically different from a red ball game.
“The conditions were perfectly fine. There was worry about the dew, whether you would be able to bowl in the night. This Eden pitch has grass, it is not the old pitch anymore. If this was day four, day five, spinners would have slowly come into the game,” Ganguly added.
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