'I am a firm believer in Day-Night Tests. I don't know when will that happen. But, till the time I am around, I will be pushing for it.'
Board of Control for Cricket in India president Sourav Ganguly revealed on Friday that India skipper Virat Kohli is open to the idea of playing day-night Tests.
His comments come following a meeting with Kohli, in Mumbai on Thursday, during which the idea was floated.
"I must say that Virat Kohli is agreeable to it. There are reports that he does not want to play day-night Tests, which is not the fact. So once the captain of India is agreeable to it, life becomes a lot easier. We will see how we can push it. The game needs to go forward," said Ganguly, on the sidelines of him being felicitated by the Cricket Association of Bengal at the Eden Gardens.
The former India captain is a vocal advocate of ‘pink ball’ Tests to bring spectators back to the stadium.
"We all are thinking about this and we will do something about it. I am a firm believer in Day-Night Tests. I don't know when will that happen. But, till the time I am around, I will be pushing for it," Ganguly added.
However, it must be mentioned that if Ganguly's tenure is not extended beyond July, the Day-Night Test may not be reality, as India next plays five-day games at home only in December 2020 -January, 2021. The home Tests against Bangladesh are the last for this season.
As a technical committee chairman in the past, Ganguly was part of the decision to have the Duleep Trophy played under lights with the pink ball.
However, domestic bowlers had complaints about the quality of SG Test pink balls that were used. Also, dew became a factor in the northern part of India, taking spinners completely out of equation.
From the 2016-17 season, the tournament was played under lights before being scrapped in the ongoing season by the domestic cricket operations team of the board.
At this point, even the Indian team is not too keen on playing Day-Night Test matches and had rejected Cricket Australia's offer during the last away series.
Ganguly reiterated the need to have a re-look at the Conflict of Interest clause which is making it very difficult for him to get quality cricketers on board.
"It definitely needs a re-look. We lose a lot of quality cricketers because they are involved in a lot of other things. Conflict has to be sensible. Nothing is a conflict if you hold an administrator's role in the BCCI.
"We need to keep that simple and take it forward. We don't want to lose the likes of VVS Laxman, (Mohammad) Azharuddin, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Kapil Dev or Sunil Gavaskar helping the Indian cricket. Realistic look needs to be taken."
Asked whether he now is training his sights on the ICC chairman's post, he replied: "It's just two days since I was appointed; let's not look that far ahead."
But he was quick to make it clear that he is his ‘’own man” contrary to popular belief that some people in the old guard are trying to influence him.
"I have been a difficult person to handle as at times. I am my own man and I do what I feel is right. But, with time, I learned how to do things. Hopefully, we can work together. I've got a very young team and very rarely you have seen a BCCI president and his team in the age of 30-40s.
"One thing I'm absolutely sure is that (for) whatever time I'm here I will try and make a difference. I'm not going to sit and spend my time for people to say that ‘I was the BCCI president’. I want to be a BCCI president who made a difference; so I'll try and do that."
Ganguly also highlighted that India have not won a world tournament for a long time.
"A cricket nation is known by the number of Tests and world tournaments won. It's pretty simple as, sometimes, we complicate the game too much. We try to do things which don't exist.
"The team has played well over the last three years; as you can see, we have not a world tournament for last seven-eight seasons. But I'm sure there's enough talent in the team to do that."
He also spoke about the Indian Premier League and how it has grabbed eyeballs.
"The IPL is probably is biggest league in the world. That two and half months is no way inferior to the English Premier League, in terms of TV rating and eyeballs. For me, it's important to bring the system back in plan at all levels."
Former India captain Azharuddin and Laxman, both of whom played some incredible knocks at the Eden Gardens, felicitated its favourite son, presenting him with bouquets.
Ganguly was welcomed at the Eden Gardens with giant placards of ‘Dadagiri begins once again' and Sachin Tendulkar's iconic statement ‘When people throw stones at you, you turn them into milestones’.
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