Chinnaswamy gets a short shrift from BCCI

Since hosting the first Test against Clive Lloyd's West Indies in 1974, the Chinnaswamy has come to be acknowledged as one of the primary Test centres in India. However, the venue appears to have fallen down the pecking order when it comes to hosting international cricket.

Bengaluru: The washed-out Test between India and South Africa in 2015 was a pivotal moment in Karnataka State Cricket Association officials ramping up the drainage system at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Even though there was not much rain on the last four days, overcast conditions and inadequate drainage facilities ensured that the outfield remained non-conducive to resume play after the opening day.

Apart from refunding the spectators for those four days, the KSCA faced issues with insurance companies who were reluctant to insure matches against natural calamities. That's when the association decided to install the cutting-edge technology subsurface aeration and vacuum-powered drainage system at a cost of Rs 4.5 crore to avoid delayed starts and/or cancellation of matches. The system became functional in January 2017. 

For some reason, though, the venue appears to have fallen down the pecking order when it comes to hosting international cricket, especially Tests, in recent years. Since the Test against Australia in March 2017, Bengaluru has been awarded just two Tests in the last six and a half years and that too against Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, with the combined duration of the matches being less than five days.

Since hosting the first Test against Clive Lloyd's West Indies in 1974, the Chinnaswamy has come to be acknowledged as one of the primary Test centres in India, along with Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Delhi. With great patronage from the fans for the traditional format, it was allotted a Test against high-profile visiting teams almost every two years. In fact, between 2000 and 2017, there were 10 Tests at the Chinnaswamy, meaning a Test was played every 1.7 years. Those games were against Australia (4 Tests), South Africa (2), Pakistan (2), New Zealand (1) and England (1).

In a country where the match-for-vote policy used to be unavoidable in an era where administrators depended on votes to get elected, it's becoming increasingly difficult for the BCCI to satisfy state units with several new world-class stadiums sprouting across the country even though board elections have become too few and far between. So red-ball cricket is allotted even to venues where Test cricket attracts hardly a few hundred spectators. A case in point -- the five venues that will stage the upcoming Test series against England – Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Ranchi, Rajkot and Dharamsala.

England played Tests in Visakhapatnam and Rajkot in 2016, while Australia in Ranchi and Dharamsala in 2017. One can argue that none of these venues got to host an ICC Men's World Cup match, so this is one way of compensating them. But then, weren't Hyderabad and Dharamsala awarded World Cup matches? Dharamsala was to host the Australia Test in March but an unfit outfield forced the BCCI to shift the match to Indore. Hence, a considerate BCCI has now given it the England Test.

The official line the BCCI has maintained over the years is that bilateral matches are allotted on a rotation basis. Nothing can be farther from reality; Ahmedabad has got three Tests (two against England and one against Australia) since 2021. This is in addition to key limited-overs matches, including the IPL and the inaugural and final games of the World Cup, as well as the marquee India-Pakistan contest. Dharamsala too has been pampered a lot, if only to a slightly lesser extent. It's no secret that those in power at the BCCI have been unabashedly biased towards their home associations, though the degree of that bias might have varied.

Against that backdrop, Bengaluru, the one-time southern powerhouse, isn't a preferred venue for the BCCI anymore (see chart), even though the current president of the Indian board Roger Binny hails from here. It's not only a disservice to Test-loving fans but to Test cricket itself, struggling due to a lack of patronage.