‘No knee-jerk reactions’: Devajit Saikia says BCCI sticking to long-term plan after India’s 0-2 home humi

BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia in Guwahati. (PTI Photo) BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia also wants batters to get accustomed to every kind of wickets & hopes to take Tests to as many venues as possibleGUWAHATI: As India suffered a humiliating whitewash to South Africa in Guwahati, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Devajit Saikia told TOI in an exclusive interview that there needs to be soul-searching regarding Indian batters’ inability to play spin at home. Saikia also said that a five-day wicket is ideal for Test cricket and players must adapt to different conditions at different venues.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Excerpts:Gautam Gambhir’s fascination for rank turners at home is well known. But after the three-day Eden Test, it was evident the Barsapara pitch was not like that. What was the instruction from the Indian team?I am not privy to the developments in CAB and Eden Gardens. But whatever is done in Barsapara is according to BCCI chief curator Asish Bhowmick, who oversaw the ground as well as the wickets. I think the curating team deserves full credit for presenting such a wonderful wicket. I have heard experts saying this is a perfect wicket for Test cricket.

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There has been a lot of talk about the kind of wicket the head coach wants for home Tests. But what is BCCI’s view regarding a proper Test wicket?The players must adjust to the weather, the overall conditions, and the composition of the soil as well as the length of the grass on a pitch. A Test cricketer is expected to adapt to any kind of wicket. If you look at the batting of Dilip Vengsarkar or Sunil Gavaskar in the past, they used different techniques for playing at home or in different conditions in countries like the West Indies, England, South Africa, or Australia. Everything is variable except the player, and he or she should adapt to the conditions. That is what the game is all about. That is the beauty of Test cricket.Despite all the success in limited overs, now in a span of 13 months, the Indian men’s team suffered two whitewashes in Tests at home. What is plaguing us in red-ball cricket?You have to consider vital things. One is that three seasoned cricketers — Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Ravichandran Ashwin — left Test cricket. New players are coming into the set-up. So, at present, the Indian team is going through a transition. It will take some time before we reclaim our position as the No. 1 Test team in the world.Is BCCI going to take some decisions after this debacle at home to South Africa?BCCI doesn’t take knee-jerk reactions. We are going on as per our long-term plan. Winning or losing is a part of the game. We don’t make changes every now and then. If any change is required, we take a call at the end of that particular period.These days Indians are greatly troubled by the foreign spinners on tracks where our spinners are looking ineffective. What needs to be done?We have to certainly do some soul-searching, and there will be some discussion on this. We will definitely visit this aspect, whether our best batters are less comfortable playing spin nowadays. A lot of touring spinners have been very successful here. Be it in the case of the New Zealand series last year (Oct-Nov 2024, India lost 0-3) or now the South Africa series, their spinners are doing the job very nicely. But what is troubling is that our best batters are unable to cope with that. We have our expert teams, cricket committees, and in the discussions, we’ll definitely highlight this aspect.Your thoughts on BCCI coming up with new Test venues while many players and experts feel Test cricket should be played in traditional centres only…India is a vast country compared to England or Australia. If you look at the Indian cricket ecosystem about 20 years ago, before MS Dhoni’s era, all the players for the national team were coming from basically the metropolitan cities. And once Dhoni broke that shackle and became the captain for a long period of time, players started coming from small cities. We want diversification. We do not want to centralise all the cricketing activities to four or five cities. So that is why we are spreading the game.But for the T20 World Cup, we have only five venues in the country…Yes, we are restricting it to five big centres with legacy and history because ICC wants us to have only five venues due to logistical issues. Had it been 15, then we could have added maybe Guwahati or Ranchi or Indore or Mohali or Dharamshala or any other venues. When we have the scope of expanding, we can have more venues, like the 2023 World Cup. We had 10 venues, including Kochi and Guwahati for practice games.Congratulations on bringing Test cricket to Guwahati. But after five days’ play, what are your thoughts on the match?It is a big thing for the northeast to have Guwahati as a Test venue. Once you have the Test venue, it means your overall infrastructure and overall cricketing culture is complete. And I am very thankful to BCCI, although I am a part of it, as well as to ICC for allowing this part of the country to have a Test venue. Special thanks to ICC chair Jay Shah for his support and unwavering guidance to develop cricket in the entire northeast.What are BCCI’s plans to boost the growth of women’s cricket further?We are going to enhance the contract value of our centrally contracted women cricketers. We are in discussion about having more tournaments in the multi-day format in the upcoming seasons, and our team will play more bilateral matches in the longer format.