BCCI to announce Test venues

Mumbai: The Tours Programmes and Fixtures Committee of the Cricket Board will meet on October 29 to finalise the dates and venues of the forthcoming Tests series against Sri Lanka and England.

Both the series will have three Test matches each apart from the seven-match One-Day series against the English team.

The meeting, to be chaired by BCCI vice-president Kamal Morarka, is to be held in Delhi on October 29, Board's Executive Secretary-in-charge, Ratnakar Shetty, said.

The three Tests against Sri Lanka would be played between December 2 and 22 while England are set to visit India in February 2006, after the home team's return from the Asia Cup in Pakistan.

The dates of the Test series against Lanka, currently playing in the seven-match One-Day international series against India, have already been declared as Dec 2-6, 10-14 and 18-22.

Only the venues have to be finalsed as per the board's rotation formula.

Shetty said the Board's secretary S K Nair who is the convener of the Fixtures Committee meeting would work out the formula.

In the last home Test series against Pakistan, the matches were held at Mohali, Kolkata and Bangalore that should effectively rule these centres out for the Tests against Lanka.

Kanpur and Kolkata had played host to the series against South Africa where as Pakistan and Australia have played their matches at Bangalore, Chennai, Nagpur and Mumbai.

Delhi did not host a Test in the last season, and have not done so since early 2002, because of renovation work at the Feroz Shah Kotla and at present seems to have a bright chance to conduct one of the Tests against Lanka.

The Gujarat Cricket Association, which was originally slated to host a Test against Pakistan last season, could not do so after the neighbours expressed their reluctance to play a Test there before agreeing to play an extra ODI at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera.

With a new stadium having come up at Hyderabad, which is to host one ODI against the visiting South African team next month at this new venue, this centre too stands a good chance to organise a five-day fixture against the Lankans after a gap of 17 years.

The last Test in Hyderabad's Lal Bahadur Stadium was against New Zealand in 1988.

Recently sources in the Vidarbha Cricket Association said that Nagpur has already been sounded out as one of the centres to host a Test against England.