Eden Gardens misses out yet again

Bangalore, Mon, Oct 05 2009

The Eden Gardens has been given step-motherly treatment yet again.

The Eden Gardens has been given step-motherly treatment yet again.[© AFP]The BCCI's internal politicking has ensured that once again, an international tour will go by without a Test match at the venue that has been called "the Lord's of India" - the Eden Gardens at Kolkata.According to a report on the channel CNN-IBN, the three cities that will host Test matches in the series between India and Sri Lanka are Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad.The root of the issue lies in the fact that the Cricket Association of Bengal is led by Jagmohan Dalmiya, who has a long-running feud with the top brass of the BCCI.This has resulted in the fact that the Eden Gardens have not hosted a Test match since November 2007 when India played Pakistan.In comparison, since that date there have been 10 Test matches played in India, and the break-up of the cities that have hosted the matches is thus:Bangalore - 2 matches; Chennai - 2 matches; Mohali - 2 matches; Ahmedabad - 1 match; Kanpur - 1 match; Delhi - 1 match; Nagpur - 1 match.Even taking into account the rotation policy of the BCCI, it doesn't account for the fact that venues have received two Tests in the period when the Eden Gardens hasn't received a single one, and that all the venues chosen for the Sri Lanka series are from the venues above.The comparison would be more stark if ODIs were taken into account, since the Eden Gardens has not hosted a single ODI since February 8 2007. Since that time, there have been 22 One Day Internationals played in India, and not a single one at the Eden Gardens.The break-up of the venues that have hosted ODIs from February 9, 2007 is:2 matches each: Bangalore, Rajkot, Guwahati and Kanpur1 match each: Margao, Vishakhapatnam, Kochi, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Vadodara, Nagpur, Mumbai, Mohali, Gwalior, Jaipur, Indore, Cuttack and Delhi