The Andhra Cricket Association has appealed to the BCCI to accord Test status to Visakhapatnam, which boasts of an ultra-modern ACA-VDCA stadium where some ODIs have already been held and the infrastructure, pitch, billiards table-top like outfield, air connectivity, star hotel accommodation that suits the foreign teams and the disciplined and sportive local cricket fans, won appreciation from every foreign team that played here, the media representatives and every leading lights of the games of India and abroad who visited the stadium.
President of ACA D.V. Subba Rao met president of BCCI N. Srinivasan during the ongoing working committee meeting in Mumbai on Wednesday and renewed the claim of the stadium as Test match venue which has fulfilled all the requirements.
He also pointed out that Dr. Patel, the architect of the DYL stadium in Mumbai, who came here as an observer on behalf of the ill-fated September 8 Twenty20 match between India and New Zealand was effusive in his praise about the stadium and also make a strong plea that it was time that Test cricket shifted to smaller centres as it was found increasingly difficult for the administrators to sustain spectator interest in five-day Tests in metro venues.
The ACA president also mentioned that in spite of the match having been washed out, local spectators who packed the stadium quietly accepted the nature’s verdict and there was no trouble at all.
He wanted the BCCI to take this aspect of the spectator interest in the game.
The administration must take positive steps to make the Test cricket survive in the country, said Mr. Subba Rao who had witnessed Tests as spectator and as an administrator at different big cities during the last forty years.
The ACA president requested the BCCI to allot another match to the city in view of the September 8 Twenty20 match abandoned without a ball being bowled due to rain causing huge disappointment to the local cricket lovers. One of the Twenty20 matches during the forthcoming tour by Pakistan could be allotted to Visakhapatnam, he said.
