Kolkata: Eden Gardens in Kolkata and the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai will host India’s two Tests against West Indies in November, which will mark the end of Sachin Tendulkar’s 24-year career. While Eden Gardens will host the first Test from November 6 to 10, Tendulkar’s farewell Test will be played at his home ground from November 14 to 18. The decision was taken during the BCCI’s tour programme and fixtures committee meeting in Mumbai on Tuesday.
While the first two ODIs of the tour will be played at Kochi (November 21) and Visakhapatnam (November 24), either Baroda or Kanpur will stage the last match of the series on November 27. Barabati Stadium in Cuttack will host the visitors’ preparations prior to the series, including a three-day game to be played from October 31 to November 2.
Once Tendulkar had requested the BCCI to play his last competitive game at his home ground, the decision with regard to his farewell Test – also his 200th – was a mere formality at the meeting of the committee headed by BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla. As a result, the Cricket Association of Bengal, which had been promised Tendulkar’s 200th before he announced his decision to retire after the Test, was awarded with Tendulkar’s penultimate Test.
The series against West Indies wasn’t scheduled on the FTP. When it was announced in September, it raised doubts over the schedule and duration India’s tour to South Africa, and whether the series would be Tendulkar’s last. Tendulkar confirmed that it would indeed be his farewell series last week.
As for the doubt over the venue for the third ODI, the Baroda Cricket Association, the home turf of BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel, was allotted the match as per the BCCI’s rotation policy. If the Reliance ground, which usually stages all the ODIs in Vadodara but does not belong to the association, is available, then the match will not be shifted to Kanpur, the home of Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association that Shukla is in charge of.
