The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has set its sights on hosting India’s first-ever day-night Test match and have put forward a proposal to the Bangladesh Cricket Board for the same. Confirming the development, BCB’s cricket operations chairman Akram Khan, said on Sunday they have not decided whether to play a day-night Test against India at Eden Gardens and they will be making that decision soon.
However, few logistical issues might become impediments behind its execution in the near future. The biggest concern is over arranging quality pink balls which will work in Indian conditions. Back in 2016, the board’s technical committee, under the chairmanship of incumbent BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, had decided to run a pilot project with Duleep Trophy being played with pink balls, an experiment which did not yield the desired results.
“The Indian grounds are not as soft as the ones in England or Australia. They are rough and the balls didn’t retain shape and colour after 20-30 overs,” a top BCCI official told reporters.
“The board will need over 24 new balls at least to give to the teams for practice and play the match. Then there’s the need to have a library where you have replaceable balls at any point. That’s the tough part,” the official said.
In the recent past, the quality of the SG balls has come under the scanner with Indian players expressing their displeasure. India captain Virat Kohli had criticised the quality of the SG ball used for Tests in India and said that gets scuffed up too early and brings down players’ performance significantly as a result.
“To have a ball scuffed up in five overs is not something that we have seen before,” Kohli said last year. “The quality of the ball used to be quite high before and I don’t understand the reason why it’s gone down. A Dukes ball is still good quality, Kookaburra is still good quality – whatever limitations a Kookaburra might have, the quality is never compromised.
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