The BCCI’s meeting in Dharamsala has confirmed that Ranji Trophy matches will be held at neutral venues as of the 2016-17 season.

The decision to play matches at neutral grounds was one of a raft of proposed changes to the domestic structure of Indian cricket and it has received the unanimous backing of the captains and coaches of Ranji sides.

Sourav Ganguly, head of the technical committee, suggested this change as a way to negate the advantage of the home team in preparing the pitch.

Alongside proposals for day-night Duleep Trophy encounters and the Mushtaq Ali Trophy being played across ‘zones’, the shift to neutral venues is part of a larger initiative to increase the competitiveness across the domestic game.

Many teams have been guilty of preparing pitches in their own favour, Tamil Nadu just one known to create wickets that heavily favour their bowlers. Speaking exclusively to Sport360.com, Bengal captain Manoj Tiwary highlighted as much.

“We have seen that they [Tamil Nadu] make square turners where the ball starts turning from the first delivery itself. This is done because they have three spinners in their line-up and they try and take that advantage,” he said.

Tiwary also went on to acknowledge neutral venues would go some way to putting teams on a level playing field.

“I think to curtail that kind of an advantage, it’s a good idea to have a neutral venue where, as a home team, you don’t have control over the preparation of the pitches.

“So more challenging the conditions as we go into a neutral venue, the better it is. The need to adapt will help players improve their skills because usually when you play at home you know exactly how the surface is going to behave and as a result you don’t need to adapt much.”

It is left to be seen whether this move has a detrimental impact on the already sparse crowd attendance that is witnessed in such games – experts predict that interest is going to dwindle further in the absence of the home team.