England v India series moved to Fiji

December 5th, 2008 by Moses Leave a reply »

What a great ground for cricket

What a great ground for cricket

England are sending half a team to India to play a Test Series. Why bother? They sent a full strength ODI squad and got pantsed 5-0.

Here’s a brainwave though, move the series to Fiji. They’ve been an associate member of the ICC since 1965, and have contested 7 ICC Champions trophies, the most recent in 2001. Now I’m not an administrative genius or anything, but I reckon playing cricket in Fiji could be a good way to grow the game there.

The tests can be held at the Fiji National Stadium in Suva (pictured). It’s got a 30,000 seat capacity and due to the athletics track around the perimeter has a good oval shape to it. A drop-in pitch can be shipped up from Australia at the BCCI’s expense, I believe they grow them in Darwin for the MCG.

The beauty of this plan revolves around the crowd attendance. Fiji has over 300,000 Indians who account for a staggering 37% of the population. Unlike complacent Indian crowds who couldn’t even be buggered to watch Sachin break the Test run record, these Fijian Indians might actually show up to the match and provide what used to be known as ‘atmosphere’.

What’s more it’s really nice in Fiji. Freddy can get pissed and peddle boats around. Harmy can bowl wides, and KP can take his team on a big game fishing trip to help them get over the loss of Stanford’s millions..

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9 comments

  1. Leg Break says:

    Nice idea Moses; shame that Bananarama has made the place go bankrupt.

    Seriously though; I’d say there’s going to be a huge amount of international cricket played in US / Canada over the next 10 years.

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  2. Moses says:

    That can’t be a bad thing, is a massive market and will take some share away from the BCCI who haven’t gone out of their way to impress me to be honest..

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  3. Leg Break says:

    But half the cricket played there will be on behalf of the BCCI

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  4. Moses says:

    I’m not so sure, I’d imagine the Yanks and Canucks would be keen for series against teams they closer relate to..

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  5. damiths says:

    They should play each test on a different pacific Island, now that would be something cool.

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  6. RAJ says:

    Ah! Moses, dreamimg are we? Hoping that we could bring the veto back for Oz in the ICC. Make Oz votes count double?
    To hell with the natives, eh?
    Good luck!

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  7. Leg Break says:

    Lots of Indian / Pak ex-pats in the US Moses.

    Rich ones too.

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  8. Salvia says:

    A great way to settle the previous loss. I don’t think that Indians have to pay the price of England’s mistakes, but with a good crowd the match could become interesting.

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  9. Cricket Bats says:

    I might be wrong but did this happen? I don’t think so.

    But it would be a great idea to host games between full nations in associate nations.

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