Sourav Ganguly provides update on proposed Day-Night Test against Bangladesh

The final outcome of Bangladesh Cricket Board’s (BCB) meeting with its senior players will be intimated to the BCCI president by late Monday evening or Tuesday morning.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have made a proposal to the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) for the second Test of the upcoming two-Test series to be a pink-ball affair.

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.

“I spoke to the BCB president (Nazmul Hassan). They are agreeable, they wanted to speak to the players. I’m sure it will be a day/night match. They will also officially announce it soon. Hopefully, by 10-10:30 pm tonight, we will get a confirmation,” BCCI president Sourav Ganguly told PTI.

BCB’s head of cricket operations and former skipper Akram Khan said: “It’s a great initiative but we need to take the players into confidence. If you look at the itinerary, we would probably get two days (Nov 20, 21) for training with pink ball under lights. That’s too little time for preparation. The players are meeting the president today.”

Bangladesh begin their India tour with the three T20Is, starting on November 3, before heading to Indore to kick off their World Test Championship campaign from November 14. The second Test will start on Nov 22.

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BCB chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury also said that there is no guarantee that they will be playing the day-night Test and the decision will depend on the players and team management.

“At first we have to take the consent of the players and members of the team managements about it. It is totally a technical matter (playing day-night Test from skill perspective) and we have to consider that there is preparation required to play a Test with a pink ball,” Chowdhury said.

Ganguly’s move

In 2018, the India team had declined Cricket Australia’s proposal to start the series in Australia with a day-night Test.

However, it was more about strategy than an opposition to day-night Test as the team management felt Australia would have had the edge in day-night Test having more experience of playing with the pink ball. India’s stand was vindicated when they went on to win their first-ever series in Australia.

At his felicitation at Eden Gardens, Ganguly said captain Virat Kohli is agreeable to playing day-night Tests.

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“We are all thinking about this (lack of crowds at Tests in India). I am a big believer in day-night Tests and I will be pushing it. These days you can’t skip work or school and attend Tests. T20 has seriously challenged other formats and that (playing day-night Tests) will be a change in the right direction.

“Virat is agreeable to the idea and once the India captain is on board, life becomes a lot easier,” said Ganguly on Friday at a programme organised by the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) to felicitate him.

Earlier too, immediately after being elected as the BCCI president, Ganguly had stressed on the need to revisit Test cricket and how it can be popularised.

“The same fans turn out for the IPL. So, it’s a bit more than stadiums. Test cricket needs a revisit and how it can be popularise. Eden Gardens is going to host Bangladesh on November 22 and we don’t know what’s going to happen in that Test match,” he said.