With many new, impressive cricket stadiums in India stepping into the arena over the past few years, there hasn’t been even any minor improvement for the spectators, who still face shabby conditions once they enter the ground to watch a match. It’s like the administrators have till now taken the Indian cricket fan for granted.
However, from this season there might be a significant change in the scenario. You may have the chance to buy a match ticket of your choice well in advance, and may not have to face a filthy toilet inside the stadium. For the first time, you may see advertisements ushering in Indian cricket’s home season, just like the IPL.
After the Working Committee meeting on Friday, BCCI announced that they will enter into ‘venue agreements’ with the state associations to host international matches in the coming season, which will witness India organizing as many as 13 Tests, eight ODIs, and three Twenty20 Internationals. “The BCCI will define these state associations’ roles and responsibilities and establishing the minimum standards required,” said a release after the meeting.
This latest agreement says a state association need to guarantee that they can provide decent facilities for hygiene (toilet facilities, food arrangements), make sure the seats are numbered, the facilities for media are good enough, and provide an effective plan on marketing strategy regarding advertising, putting out banners and creating awareness about the match in their own city, to selling tickets for it. “Basically, it is no longer your right to host a match. You’ve to earn that right,” said an official.
All the associations hosting Test matches this season have already asked for a presentation about how they plan to go about hosting and marketing the game allotted to them.
Right now, some of the biggest cricket stadiums in the country still way behind in terms of providing basic facilities to the media and spectators. According to sources, if they fail to live up to the above-mentioned criteria, they may lose the match allotted to them.
To help the state associations, BCCI plans to appoint centrally-contracted agencies, who will look after the ticketing, hygiene standards and marketing of matches during the upcoming season. The money which BCCI would pay to these agencies will then be deducted from these associations’ share of the grant they get from the Board.
This ‘venue agreement,’ as BCCI president Anurag Thakur revealed after the meeting, already exists in the IPL, in a tripartite form, between the “franchise, BCCI and the state associations.“In the upcoming international matches to be hosted in India, BCCI will enter into an agreement with the host association to fulfill our commitment of 10% tickets to the students and specially-abled during the Tests,” Thakur told reporters.
“The BCCI will put a plan in place to market the upcoming season, so that the fans are aware about when which match will be played, on which date, and at which venue. More marketing will take place in the ‘host city’ of that match, so that in the rural areas, each category of the fan get a lot of awareness about the match being held in their city,” he had stressed.
The new BCCI president also revealed that India are scheduled to play at least 20 Tests at home in the next eight-year FTP cycle, which starts from 2019, “so that revenues of the board and the state associations are secured.”
“The Indian fan deserves a defined cricket season, which is from October to March,” to conclude Anurag Thakur said.