At captain-coach conclave, BCCI to do a rethink on neutral venues

It’s learnt that the BCCI feels that it’s time for a rethink and are even considering a return to the traditional home-and-away format — where teams will play half their matches on the road. The proposal had been floated in the first place last year as a way of improving the quality of pitches used for the Ranji Trophy and also eradicating the practice of creating dubious pitches to suit the home team.

It had come on the back of a controversial season where nine Ranji matches ended within two days and 17 were wrapped up within three with some teams pushing the limits of fairplay to the hilt.

By ensuring that there is no “home” team, the push was to bring more accountability for curators while also giving them a freer hand to produce pitches that are more “sporting” in nature. However, that wasn’t always the case.

But some like Mumbai coach Chandrakant Pandit felt that rather than force the issue by sending teams to faraway venues, the BCCI could still call for accountability in the old format.

“If you have a problem with associations making unplayable pitches then deduct their points. I feel we should go back to the old system. The problem a team like Mumbai faced is that at home we have added motivation with people turning up to watch our game. Instead we played at venues where there was nobody. There was no exposure. We travelled for 12 hours in buses on occasions, and often with hardly any gap between matches,” said Pandit, whose team lost to Gujarat in the Ranji Trophy finals last season.

Saurashtra coach Sitanshu Kotak too is of the same opinion and reveals that there were other logistical issues too that teams had to deal with.

“The state association where we played at did not take any interest. There were no net bowlers available. If we ask then we got the answer that the stadium is far and that’s why they can’t come. The food has also been an issue at the same time. Plus there is the case of getting players back into form, since there is no time to take them to the nets and work on their game,” Kotak said.

Abhinav Mukund, who leads Tamil Nadu, was the first captain to openly criticize the BCCI’s neutral-venue experiment during one of the matches in the later stages, insisting that he couldn’t name even one positive aspect of it.

“Shall I keep naming the cons?” he said when asked whether he was a fan of the board’s decision. From paucity of balls to nature of pitches, he listed them out. He even said that he can’t think of any positive effect of the experiment. “Pros? I don’t know any.”

Mukund had hit out against the pitches. “Secondly, none actually gives a damn about the wickets that are being prepared. Everyone’s playing safe, which is why people are scoring more than 1000 runs, 1500 runs and I don’t see many spinners coming into play at all.”

He also lamented the fact that how playing relentlessly away has deprived young cricketers the experience of playing at home.

“I don’t like this concept mainly because of the fact that there’s no continuity. You play throughout the year in one condition – it’s really important to play at home. So many cricketers who have made debut for us this year haven’t played at Chepauk. That’s such a big thing for me, at least.”