Upset Mumbai Cricket Association Asks Why Not More Prominent Tests At The Wankhede

An important event took place at the recent Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in Mumbai. BCCI members, as permitted by the Supreme Court, attend the AGM and try to make their presence felt. The representative of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA), Dr Unmesh Khanvilkar, may have stirred the hornets’ nest by telling the BCCI bigwigs that Mumbai should be considered for prominent Test matches. He even went so far as to propose that Mumbai be awarded a Test match in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy because Gavaskar is from the great city of Mumbai, which has won the Ranji Trophy 42 times. The MCA has hosted 27 Test matches in the last 51 years, the last being the third Test of that series against New Zealand. The city’s second Test venue, the Brabourne Stadium at the Cricket Club of India, has hosted 18 Tests, while the Bombay Gymkhana hosted one, the inaugural Test in India, against England. India has over 30 Test grounds, with the original first five permanent Test venues being Bombay (Mumbai), Madras (Chennai), Delhi, Calcutta (Kolkata), and Kanpur. Some noted former Test players believe that the time has come for the authorities to schedule Test matches at traditional venues. Australia, England, South Africa, and New Zealand have their own Test centres that attract large attendance. Adding Guwahati, Ranchi, Indore, Visakhapatnam, Dharamsala, New Chandigarh and Rajkot has made the rotation policy long and winding. The five Test series against Australia have already been scheduled at Nagpur, Chennai, Ranchi, Guwahati and Ahmedabad, and it looks like Mumbai’s frustration will continue for a long time. But it’s good that the MCA has raised the issue.