The historic one-off Test against Afghanistan in June will precede the West Indies series and India will leave for Australia after completing their assignments against the Caribbeans. (Source: File)
The Cricket West Indies (CWI) has agreed to play a day/night Test in India in the coming season. Replying to an email from the BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary, the CWI chief Dave Cameron has said: “As per our discussions we would gladly agree to a day/night Test Match being the first one. Additionally, we would require the warm up game to be under lights as well. Thanks much and look forward to finalizing the schedule.”
Earlier Choudhary had asked for Cameron’s views on a day/night Test in India, saying: “This is with regard to our onward conversation on the subject of day-night test match between the visiting West Indies team and hosts India. As you know our respective national teams play two test matches this coming season. Kindly let us know of your views on the subject.”
India hosting its first-ever day/night Test later this year, however, is subject to the Committee of Administrators (CoA) approval. “If the approval comes, then Rajkot is likely to have the first day/night Test,” a BCCI official told The Sunday Express.
During its meeting on Saturday, the cricket board’s Tour, Programme and Fixtures Committee picked Rajkot and Hyderabad as the venues for the two Test matches against West Indies, in October. Mumbai, Guwahati, Kochi, Indore and Pune will host the five ODIs against the Caribbeans, while Kolkata, Chennai and Kanpur have been selected for three T20 internationals.
The historic one-off Test against Afghanistan in June will precede the West Indies series and India will leave for Australia after completing their assignments against the Caribbeans.
Then, the Aussies will come for five ODIs and two T20 internationals in February-March next year. Mohali, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Delhi and Ranchi will play host to the ODIs against Australia followed by the T20s at Bangalore and Vizag.
Coming back to the day/night Test, the Vinod Rai-headed panel had earlier frowned on the cricket board’s day/night Test move, coming down hard on Choudhary for not keeping the CoA in the loop. Rai had instructed that the day/night Test issue be put on hold.
The acting secretary responded to it, saying: “If anything, India as the tallest and foremost cricket nation should actually have been leading the way (day/night Tests) considering the country is perhaps impacted most acutely by loss of spectator support for Tests.”