After almost two years, the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai will host an ODI match when Australia tours India in September. The city had last hosted an ODI on October 22, 2015. Even though, it hosted a Test match against England last year, One-dayers didn't come its way. On Tuesday, the Tour Fixture Committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), on Tuesday, decided the Tamil Nadu capital city as one of the venues for the three international teams, Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka, which will tour India between September and December.
Australia will arrive in September for a five-match one-day international series to be held in Chennai, Bengaluru, Nagpur, Indore and Kolkata. It will also play three T20 internationals in Hyderabad, Ranchi and Guwahati.
New Zealand will play three ODIs at Pune, Mumbai and Kanpur and as many T20Is in Delhi, Cuttack and Rajkot. Sri Lanka will play a full series of three Tests (Kolkata, Nagpur and Delhi), three ODIs (Dharamasala, Mohali and Visakhapatnam) and three T20Is (Kochi/ Trivandrum [because Trivandrum has a new stadium], Indore and Mumbai).
“Dates of the matches have deliberately not been frozen because of the logistics factor (including festivals),” said BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary.
Ganguly, meanwhile, informed that the Kolkata ODI would be held on September 21 (around Durga Puja) and the first Test against Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens would start on November 16.
Asked why the Sri Lanka tour, which was expected early next year, has been advanced, Choudhary said, “Sri Lanka is organising an Independence Cup. That will be shortly after India's return from South Africa. Sri Lanka has always co-operated with India and therefore India will make a reciprocal short tour for the Independence Cup.
“There is another reason. Since the six proposed exchange tours between India and Pakistan did not happen, those spaces had to be adjusted.”
Choudhary said the Duleep Trophy matches will continue to be played with pink ball.
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