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Cape Town - Former India coach Anil Kumble has backed current captain Virat Kohli's proposal for the Asian country to have limited Test venues in their home season.
India recently completed a 3-0 Test series whitewash over South Africa at grounds that were only hosting their second games in the longest format - Visakhapatnam, Pune and Ranchi.
Kohli has since called on cricket chiefs to only select as many as five venues to host Test matches in India, just as they do in other countries such as England, Australia and South Africa.
Kumble, a legendary leg-spinner and who is also a former India skipper, has come out in support of Kohli's idea to limit Test venues across the country.
Speaking to CricketNext, Kumble said: "It is also important to choose the time of the Test match. We all remember that during the festival of Pongal, a Test match used to happen in Chennai. And the start of the season used to be in Delhi.
"Bangalore would have a Test match, Mumbai would have a Test match, Kolkata of course.
"I think it is important for Test cricket to promote these centres where people would know that these are the centres where you are going to play Test match cricket prior to the start of the season, so that you can market Test cricket and you can make sure that the crowds come in.
"When I was the coach, I think we played in six different centres.
"They were all new centres and the one centre it was packed was Indore. The atmosphere was brilliant.
"It (the stadium in Indore) is in the heart of the city. That was one of the reasons that the crowd could come in irrespective of the time of the day."
India will host Bangladesh for three T20Is and two matches next month with games in the longest format set to be played in Indore and Kolkata.
- TeamTalk Media
