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Sight Screen

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Cricket at Taj(-worma)

Apparently that's what the ECB wants....'touristy' venues for Eng matches in the upcoming series. The issue that I spoke about, and Prem also referred to yesterday, has not been a few individual opinions afterall. It has reached the point where ECB is officially going to ask BCCI to reconsider, according to this story by Andrew Culf in Guardian. And the reasons? Here are the samples:
England are seeking an urgent rethink by the Indian cricket board of the itinerary for next spring's tour amid fears it will prove too gruelling for players and supporters. The schedule, released after weeks of delay, bypasses several large venues, including Calcutta, Delhi, Madras and Bangalore, that have the biggest stadiums and largest volume of high-quality hotel accommodation

So, when was the last time a touring team did not have enough hotel accommodation in India? And if they are concerned about the traveling batch of supporters, well cricket tours are not organised to accommodate them. All the venues are international class, where big teams (yes Aus also) have played earlier. But wait, there's more(emphasis mine):
The first two Tests will be staged well off the tourist track, in Ahmedabad and Nagpur, and Goa is the only city with a reputation for tourism among the seven one-day international venues

So now what? BCCI must organised cricket matches in Agra and Varanasi? Madras, Bangalore and Kolkata may be large cities with international flight connections, but certainly not on the 'tourist track'(any more than, say, Kochi)? And more:
Although the England and Wales Cricket Board has been diplomatic in public, officials are dismayed by the amount of traveling the team faces, particularly between the largely unknown one-day venues

But I thought they were unhappy with having small centers for test matches (Nagpur, Ahmedabad). So instead of second test in Nagpur, if we put it in Kolkatta(a 'big' center) won't it be more hectic travel for them? So, if I understand it right(which is a challenge) they want big centers *and* less hectic travel. Emm...I think GoI should consider, for the sake of world cricket, to shift Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai into a single cluster, somewhere next to Varanasi preferably. And oh, throw in that Taj Mahal somewhere there, please?(ofcourse I'm exaggerating, and being sarcastic:-)Wait, there's more
England believe they have been unfairly treated in comparison with Australia, whose four-Test tour last year included matches in Bangalore and Madras, as well as Mumbai, where England will play the third Test in March.

So this is what its all about, is it? Australia got a better deal, hmmm. But they did play in Nagpur, didn't they? And as far as I can remember, of the top of my head, Aus has also played ODIs in Indore(2001), Kochi(1998), Vizag(2001). And as far as tests are concerned, like it or not, there is a rotation policy in BCCI for allocation of test venues, and unfortunately that doesn't link to the tourist demands of English supporters. And here comes the bogey
Some see the scheduling as part of a move by the Board of Control for Cricket in India to destabilize the England team, others merely as a typically chaotic move by a board riven by internal disputes.

While I do understand and acknowledge that this is a good chance for promotion of tourism, and BCCI can work in co-ordination with GoI to help that cause to some extent, I don't see scope for too much of changes. India is a big country(and we face that in our daily work, personal lives as well) and travel is bound to be hectic. All that can he done to help it is have a prolonged tour with more breathing space for the tourist team. But they don't want *that*...do they?

And lastly, what about the 'heat' in India? How many of you think that the English would not have complained about a conspiracy of too many 'South Indian heat' venues had they got a test and a clutch of ODIs down there?
Gatting believes England are likely to be more affected by the weather in India than in Pakistan.

He said: "I've got some very strong memories of Madras, when I played there and it was 90 degrees and 90% humidity.

"It was very draining and hard to play in. You've just got to get into your head that you have to accept it."

37 Comments:

  • Worma,

    The BCCI will suck up, and the ECB will have their way.

    Nagpur will say it's unable to host the game as it's not ready and Calcutta will step in and offer to help out.

    And ditto a couple of ODI centres....

    By Blogger Saurabh Wahi, at 05:03  

  • Laks1234, excellent point...

    By Blogger Saurabh Wahi, at 05:25  

  • saurabh LOL....I think Nagpur will stay, although ECB may get away with changing Ahmedabad (for apparent reasons like security etc) And yes, I think a couple of ODI centers might also change. But thats not the point, is it? The point is the sort of flawed reasons they are coming up with, when asking for those changes.

    laks1234: I think the rotation policy for test matches is good. So whatever test venues we have, all teams play amongst those based on a reasonably transparent logic. Otherwise there would be favours and corruption etc in allocation bigger test matches (like the Eng matches) to the centers closer to the power heads in BCCI. Dont you think so?

    I would not mind the BCCI offering better centers to Eng, if that can be done transparently (so its not Mr Dalmiya returning favours to his pet associations). And btw, Eng offering bigger centers to India has more to do with commercial reasons, I would think? And even otherwise, if they allot Indian matches to smaller places, why should we complain? As long as we know that its done based on a fair system (which doesnt favour other visiting teams like Australia etc). In fact what Australia does with venue allocations (it offered Darwin and Cairns to bdesh, and even SL I think) is unfair. And it did that because those matches were commercially not important. I think Indian system is better.

    And as to method in our madness...I have posted the stats of our test match venues earlier....check out and you'll see a decent amount of rotation policy there. I would not go into selection issues here (although I have expressed my opinion on this earlier as well, and I dont see too much 'madness' in the 'method' there either)

    Most of those 'small towns' chosen for Eng have also hosted other big matches...even with Aus. So if Eng wants them changed, they should give the right reasons. And what would that be, you may ask? "That boss, we want our supporters to cheer us...and also to enjoy tourist sights of India, and be able to get freedom and booze etc in those places..basically we want a 'convenient' tour for us and our supporters"....I don't think all this can be accomodated for *any* touring team in India. And anyways, as I tried to point out, some of their reasons are self-contradictory...so what to do about those?

    By Blogger worma, at 05:27  

  • and excellent point Worma. Laks1234, your turn :-)

    By Blogger Saurabh Wahi, at 05:30  

  • and as to the final point Mohali must have the best stadium but it has one decent hotel.What happens to the tour entourage?Where will you shove them? Well thats what we have in India...either make those stadiums null and void, and play cricket in big centers (which has lots of other cricketing implications, right down to the point of not having good cricket culture and future) or bear with it. As long as the teams get good facilities, I think that should be the cut-off limit (atleast on official negotiations).

    Btw, I'm not sure if Chandigarh has just one decent tourist hotel??

    By Blogger worma, at 05:30  

  • Worma,

    Have the ECB said they want the centres changed to 'tourist' centres or are you reacting to the media?

    The English media always goes into overdrive, no?

    By Blogger Saurabh Wahi, at 05:35  

  • well said, criclover.

    At the end of the day, cricket should be a winner. And if it means making some accaomodation, so be it...

    I don't buy into this 'rotation' policy. With everything else in Shambles when it comes to BCCI, I am surprised they hold that policy so dearly.

    By Blogger Saurabh Wahi, at 05:38  

  • saurabh: I dont know about the official ECB stand, this article does mention that they're going to talk to BCCI about it. I dont think that has happened yet. But yes, I am reacting to the drums that the Eng media is beating (and we know all these together grow into a big pressurizing cacaphony by tour time...if you dont believe it, wait and watch. As I told you on the day of Berry's article, it *will* grow. And there were some doubters....and you can see its growing already. Telegraph, Times and Guardian have taken it up).

    As to the 'official' lines on which ECB would negotiate with BCCI, no clear idea as to what those can be. What can they be, in your opinion?

    By Blogger worma, at 05:41  

  • And I am sure Daniel Brigham did not write this article just to score any brownie points over the Indians.

    http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/222038.html

    How do you expect ANYONE to have respect for you, let alone the POMS...

    By Blogger Saurabh Wahi, at 05:41  

  • saurabh...yes a lot of other things are in shambles in BCCI. So you want the venue allocation to go the same route? ;-)

    By Blogger worma, at 05:41  

  • hey, I'm not here to defend BCCI in general...heck not defending (or attacking) anyone in general. I'm talking about the specific issues being raised by the Eng media...which according to me, is a well thought 'tactic'...rather than some scattered loony opinions

    By Blogger worma, at 05:43  

  • Haven't a clue Worma. Maybe offer the BCCI officials free trips to the UK in exchange for change in Venues :-)

    By Blogger Saurabh Wahi, at 05:44  

  • LOL :-)..thats why I'm thankful for the rotation system(esp in the Indian context)...no allotment of venues based on free trips. Otherwise we're all sure it would have happened...no?

    By Blogger worma, at 05:47  

  • or the ECB will use the age-old divide and rule policy. After all Dalmiya does not see eye-to-eye with the ECB, so I am sure there will be others who will want thay eye-contact...

    By Blogger Saurabh Wahi, at 05:56  

  • "the specific issues being raised by the Eng media...which according to me, is a well thought 'tactic'...rather than some scattered loony opinions"

    So let's see if the likes of Prem and others rally behind the BCCI and counter this :-)

    By Blogger Saurabh Wahi, at 06:01  

  • something tells me it wont happen. Not part of our national character to rally behind our own to begin with.

    I am waiting for another 'leaked' email regarding this issue...

    By Blogger Saurabh Wahi, at 06:02  

  • Gotta go. Flight to catch and get back to London to celebrate Diwali.

    Besides, I get this 'strange' feeling I am the only one around...

    Happy Diwali guys

    By Blogger Saurabh Wahi, at 06:04  

  • laks1234: about the six points you made:

    1) Test match allocation to venue with hostory? Well, if you don't allot test to other venues, how would they have a chance to get into history later on? And btw, some historical venues (like Kanpur's Green Park and now defunct Brabourne in Mumbai or K D Singh Babu in Lucknow) suck in terms of faciliies. Its better for tourists to play in Mohali than Babu stadium.

    2) Totally agreed, but I think most of our test venues have big enough capacity? (or, atleast, ECB wont have a point to complain if they ask for those 500 or so tkts that they ask for, I would think?) But anyway, I agree in general that all our stadiums need to be increased in capacity.

    3) Totally agreed. And from what I've read, all our stadiums suck bigtime in basic facilities. Even in big venues (as you recount in your Bangalore experience). So Eng should not complain about playing in Nagpur instead of Bangalore on these grounds?

    4) Yeah I know this air-connection problem. Even a city like Pune has a daily single flight to Delhi (and Mumbai). And Kanpur does not even have an airport (it shares Lucknow airport, 80 kms outside Kanpur). And Eng should thank their stars that they didn't get Kanpur as a venue ;-). But agreed, although air-connection is a generic problem for most of the Indian (even corporates). If you start counting on number of flights, then half the cuontry would be left out. And this is deterimental to cricket. An option is to have enough space between matches. If the boards agree, that is.

    5) I think most of the test centers surely have enough hotels (and I dont believe Chandigarh has only 1 decent hotel, anyone from there can confirm?). Some of the ODI centers may not have 5 big hotels...but I think the primary criteria should be that the team should get good accomodation. Which is the responsibility of the BCCI. And I'm not sure if Eng can complain on those terms.

    6) Safety...well no matter what we read about this in the media, I think this is one aspect in which our countries (and probably other countries as well) have good agencies working on it.

    >>Do we as cricket public ever heard of what minimum criteria a venue should meet before it is considered a venue for international match?

    Well, I do think there are some minimum criteria in place, before which a venue is not made 'international'. Whether we hear it in the media or not is different story. But I do think that some of these minimum criteria should be revised (like in your own example later, even seating and lavatory facilties are not up to the mark...I think all our stadiums need to be improved in that sense:-)

    And later when you say When we have such quality systems for the coffee we buy or even a potato chips packet we buy, why not for the cricket venues? Why are we outdated? Why inteligent people like you fail to see the point behind all these furoe from british? WHY SHOULD YOU FIND EXCUSES FOR A character LIKE JAGGU OR Runta or whoever else has been at the helm all these years?

    I have always found common people like us jump to the rescue of the high and mighty in this land who are most times devious.When they have suckers like us, why will these devious not thrive?


    Dude, who is jumping to save the BCCI administrators? Atleast my intention is to point out that the Eng media campaign has a flawed logic at work. Do read my points above, nowhere do I say (except for the rotational system in tests) that BCCI is doing a good job of anything. In fact even for the rotational system, I said that this system saves us from corruption in allotment of venues (which is sure to happen if we didnt have a well defined method)

    By Blogger worma, at 06:40  

  • Saurabh, great article by Brigham...haven't we also discussed the website issue of BCCI here also. But I do disagree with this point And where will children find out the best way to get into the sport? Not on the BCCI website; maybe they'll take up soccer or hockey instead. - I don't think it works that way in India.

    But still, there are lots of other reasons why BCCI should have a well managed website (and no reason at all why they should/could not have one till date)

    By Blogger worma, at 06:57  

  • Worma...One Ashes win and England wants everyone to bend backwards. Let them crib and cry.BCCI should stick to its guns and make the Pommies play at the alloted venues. We have seen and heard enough of the comments by Flintoffs and Flectchers of the world and now the English media.Maybe, the sudden ascendence of the Indian team has sent them into a tizzy and they are creating the background for a possible 'brown wash'

    By Blogger RR, at 07:22  

  • yep indianfansrcrazy (wow..that id needs some careful typing ;-)...agreed. We've visited this issue earlier, with almost general agreement that there's a lot which BCCI can do with such a website. And it can definitely 'recover' the cost incurred on maintaing one, if not anything else.

    By Blogger worma, at 08:43  

  • shyam, but even I agree with laks1234 ! But the issue being blown up by the Eng media is not what laks1234 has highlighted, is it?

    By Blogger worma, at 08:57  

  • indianfansrcrazy: no probs mate...we keep revisiting all the issues (some more often than others ;-)...so go ahead and state your opinions. We haven't had a specific discussion on current vs new administration...although Prem did once touch the subject of Pawar and what he may/may-not bring to the table.

    santa: LOL :-)...am from U.P. but I guess I know the names of most of the stadiums in India, I would think. Yes but people do tend to know more about the defunct stadiums of their region, esp the ones not used for a long time like the University Grounds in Lucknow not used since 1950s I think)

    By Blogger worma, at 09:16  

  • and thx for that info about Chandigarh, as I thought.

    By Blogger worma, at 09:19  

  • santa, not fair :-))....I named Green Park and Brabourne also..but ok, you got it right ;-)

    although you didn't include all in the top names in that school listing....hmmm..so you're not actually from Lko..but you've been there quite a few times...a close relative there? Btw your using the acronym 'Lko' can be a conincidence, but shows that you're used to that name. Ehh...Watson? Right?

    By Blogger worma, at 09:38  

  • santa, LOL...looked like Watson messed up once again ;-)...am from St Francis'...'93 batch...and MNR '98 batch...

    By Blogger worma, at 09:56  

  • atleast me was right about the acronym Lko part...small consolation :-P

    By Blogger worma, at 09:57  

  • deepinleep: not even going into that kind of extreme scenario, but just imagine if instead of Nagpur, the second match had been in Kolkata, and lets say instead of first one in Ahmedabad, it had been in Chennai. So its Chennai...4 days gap...Kolkata...4 days gap...Mumbai. And all square turners (as they usually are). I don't think Eng (or atleast their crusading media here) would *still* have been happy with it, would they?

    maher: dunno mate...it happens each time...I noticed our media lapping up the Aussie tales of woe and horror also in their visits (not so much in 2004, but earlier). And I think it will happen again. I wait for sections of our media to start feeding on these Eng stories.

    While I do think there are some conditions that the tourists have to face when in India, I think most of them are not going to change over-night...and definitely they are not the ones being highlighted by Eng media. (while laks1234 above has highlighted some of the real problems)

    By Blogger worma, at 10:05  

  • hjrsingh: I cannot say this with authority, but I think all that you are listing is taken care of by the host board anyways (travel, accomodation, training etc) so I think the details would have been provided, no? And if not, they should be. And they should be of requisite standards also.

    But if you read the Eng media rants carefully, they are not complaining about the facilities for their players. Its mostly about their supporters. And I am not sure if BCCI would be liable (or willing) to provide those details.

    By Blogger worma, at 10:09  

  • yeah, someone needs to show them the Nagpur scorecard ;-)..but anyways...the point is that pitches in most of these venues, if not square turners (and I didn't mean it in an 'underprepared' way) are supporting spin. Ahmedabad, in fact, is a pretty dull one, and may not have any life for spin (low, slow spin). Again the same thing...did 'they' analyse any facts at all before starting this tirade?

    By Blogger worma, at 10:33  

  • arun: not doubting about the facilities at those centers. Just that they were chosen for hosting the supposedly 'lower' test status countries...what do you think might be the reason for that?

    By Blogger worma, at 10:34  

  • I hate to use obscene language - least of all in a blog -- but ENG just shut the FUCK up.

    By Blogger Amit, at 10:46  

  • About pitches...I want all test pitches in India to be spin friendly. Note, not under-prepared, but spin friendly. That, to me, falls under the category of sporting pitch.

    We may slowly be transitioning in our domestic structure, becoming more friendly for seam (in bowling, and also batsmen facing them) but, to me, its not *yet* time to make that transition in test matches.

    By Blogger worma, at 11:14  

  • indianfansrcrazy: yes ofcourse if its a sporting spinning wkt, it has to have quick spin, even bounce and not turn square from day one...so obviously it should have decent help from pace on day 1 atleast...I would think.

    By Blogger worma, at 12:18  

  • arun, point taken. My question....why do this experiment with B'desh and SL? Just coincidence?

    By Blogger worma, at 15:04  

  • It seems to be a good strategy for the Poms to get their media to do the whining on their behalf. What I don't understand is why we see a reaction only in blogs like these, but not in the Indian media, either in the new or columns. Also, as worma mentioned before, we never get to hear the relevant details of the issues, e.g. what are the minimum criteria for each venue to hold international matches, and how far the venues mentioned go towards fulfilling them.

    About the venues, I think an important question is whether anything about a venue (after it has met all the minimum requirements) should make a difference in it's qualification to hold a match.
    In other words, should the rotation policy be blind to other factors and facilities beyond the minimum needed for the team and schedule each venue with an equal weightage? Or should the board recognize that some venues are more equal than others, and make an effort to have a fair mix of 'normal' venues and hi-profile ones in at least the major tours. Or is this a superfluous question and is such a system already in place?

    By Blogger veryconfuzed, at 17:22  

  • arun, ok mate....I make peace with the benefit of doubt you give. For now, that is :-)

    By Blogger worma, at 03:02  

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