Sourav Ganguly: Virat Kohli is open to day-night Tests

Kolkata BCCI president Sourav Ganguly yesterday said that Indian skipper Virat Kohli is open to the idea of playing daynight Tests and it could be a reality in near future He had a meeting with Kohli in Mumbai on Thursday where the idea was floated I must say that Virat Kohli is agreeable to it There are reports that he does not want to play daynight Tests which is not a 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 Ganguly said yesterday on the sidelines of his felicitation by the Cricket Association of Bengal at the Eden GardensThe exIndia captain has been a vocal advocate of pink ball Test in order to bring back the spectators to the stadiumsNo time frameWe all are thinking about this and we will do something about it I am a firm believer in daynight Tests I dont know when will that happen But till the time I am around I will be pushing for it Ganguly said However it must be mentioned that if Gangulys tenure is not extended beyond July the daynight Test might not be reality as India next play fiveday games at home only in December 2020January 2021 The home Tests against Bangladesh are last for this seasonAs a technical committee chairman Ganguly in the past was a part of the decision to have Duleep Trophy under lights with the pink ball However domestic bowlers had complaints about the quality of the SG Test pink balls which were used Also dew became a factor in the northern part of India taking spinners completely out of equationFrom 201617 season it was played under lights before being scrapped for the ongoing season by the domestic cricket operations team of the board At this point even the Indian team are not too keen on playing daynight Test matches and they had rejected Cricket Australias offer during the last away series Ganguly reiterated the need to have a relook at the conflict of interest clause which is making it very difficult for him to get quality cricketers on board It definitely needs a relookSourav Ganguly flanked by his former India teammates VVS Laxman left and Mohammed Azharuddin during a felicitation function for the new BCCI president at Eden Gardens Kolkata yesterday PicAFPWe 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 administrators role in the BCCI We need to keep that simple and take it forward We dont want to lose the likes of VVS Laxman Mohammed Azharuddin Sachin Tendulkar Rahul Dravid Kapil Dev or Sunil Gavaskar helping the Indian cricket A realistic look needs to be taken Asked whether he now is training his sights on the ICC chairmans post Ganguly said Its just two days since I was appointed lets not look that far aheadBut he was ready 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 himIm a difficult person DadaI 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 Ive got a very young team and very rarely you have seen BCCI president and his team in the age of 3040s One thing Im absolutely sure is that whatever time Im here I will try and make a difference Im 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 differenceCatch up on all the latest sports news and updates hereAlso download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever