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ICC has recently announced its Futures Tours Program which gives overview of the cricketing tours and number of Test matches/ ODIs/ T20s till 2020. One of the thing which ICC could have avoided is 2 test series, as they often do not result in meaningful conclusion. With waning popularity of test cricket, meaningless series is last thing ICC could ask for.

Overall popularity of test cricket, especially crowds in stadiums, has been decreasing over last decade. Apart from England and Australia stadiums are hardly full for test matches, not even in 'cricket-crazy' India. So what could be possibly done to pump up the crowds in stadium? Few ideas based on last Cricinfo podcast and article I had read some time back (I couldn't find article :( )!

Most important sports these days are 'Events'. They are marketed and presented to the audience in nice package as something which would like to have as a part of lifestyle. Take example of EPL, which markets itself as best football league and as a great way to spend Saturday evening. Or tennis Grand Slams, which people aspire to go and watch. With busy lifestyles, it's important to have such sporting occasions on weekends/ holidays, when people can go and watch it. Football matches are played on weekends or at nights during weekdays. Grand Slams, F1, Tour de France are all arranged in European summer, the time when people usually take big vacation.

Even cricket matches in England and Australia are scheduled in summer time, when people can come and watch matches whole day. Test matches in early summer, in say May hardly draw any crowds. So its the occasion which people want to associate with! Boxing Day Test match at Melbourne or Lord's Test. Unfortunately, BCCI fails to create such aura about Test matches. People would flock stadiums if the sporting event is marketed properly. Take example of recently concluded World Cup. People were ready to pay anything just to soak the atmosphere in stadium. IPL which is held during holidays thrives on massive crowds in stadium.

While hosting any test match its imperative that there should be weekend in between. There have been instances in the past when BCCI had scheduled test matches which were between Monday and Friday. It's impossible to get good crowds for such matches. Ideally, as is the case in England, test matches should start on Thursdays.

Now about creating event around test matches. With many people taking holidays during Winter, it won't be very difficult task. Wouldn't it be great to have fixed test centres and dates coinciding with festivals or holidays. For example, how about having Pongal Test in Chennai every year or Republic Day test in Delhi or say Diwali test in Mumbai. If such 'events' are carefully nurtured, people could even think of including such test matches into their itinerary of trips during winter time, just like people plan their trips as per big tennis or football tournaments.

More importantly stadium facilities should be improved a lot. If people have to stay in the stadium for the entire day, it should be comfortable outing with friends and family rather than ordeal of 7 hours in scorching sun. Grass banks and barbecues would be welcome.

Problem is that BCCI takes Indian audience for granted and there is no effort to improve overall experience of cricket watching. I hope BCCI would make most of it's overflowing coffers for this purpose.

To clarify about the title, 'Republic of China' is Taiwan, not the mainland China. Mainland China is called 'People's Republic of China', which has capital Beijing. I came to know this when I got the visa, which mentioned the country I was going to visit is officially called 'Republic of China'. This name is result of some interesting history of the island. So before I narrate about my journey to this country, let me give you some background about the place.

Taiwan is small island on the south of Mainland China. It was part of China in the first half of 20th century. After World War 2, China was ruled by Chiang Kai-Shek. Mao's communist revolution forced him to flee mainland China and he moved his government to small island of Taiwan. Chiang Kai-Shek declared that they are real China and named themselves as 'Republic of China'. Even USA, which opposed communist rule in China, officially recognised Taiwan as the 'real' China and they were given seat in United Nations. Of course, going forward, the relations between USA and Mao's China improved and mainland China were reinstated in UN. So China till date considers Taiwan as part of itself and thus, Taiwan is not recognised as separate country by many countries under China's influence. Enough of history.

Taiwan is not a place which comes to your mind as travel destination. First thing which comes to mind about Taiwan is electronics. And hence when my friend suggested about travelling to Taiwan, I was wondering what would be there in that country to see. But when I explored about the country on the net, I was pleasantly surprised to know how much the country had to offer. And so began the process of applying for visa.

With only 2 weeks to go for the trip, getting visa was race against time. Taiwanese consulate is in Delhi and they are usually very particular about documents. I sent printouts of my hotel bookings, flight tickets through my agent. But unlike other countries, Taiwan embassy wanted hotel booking details to be faxed from Taiwan to India. Now, that was arduous task. I mailed hotels to fax booking details, but they didn't reply. So I decided to call up the hotel and explain the need 2 fax. And talking to the hotel guys, who hardly knew English, was hell of a task. But somehow they understood and faxed me booking. Now this was on Friday, week before I was supposed to leave. So time was really running out considering that visa processing would take 2 days and it has to be then couriered to Mumbai from Delhi. But that was not all. Embassy folks were not happy with my account statements. They accepted printout of my Standard Chartered statements, but not with IDBI ones. They wanted me to get 'stamped' statements of IDBI bank. So I had to go to IDBI branch and get statements 'stamped'. Thankfully, in spite of being sarkari bank, people over there were really helpful. Now this was on Tuesday and I had almost lost hopes of getting visa within time. But thankfully my visa got ready on Wednesday and I was ready to fly :)

Taiwan is a modern country with lot of scenic places. Often the journey from Airport to the city provides a glimpse of what the country has to offer. And Taipei didn't disappoint me. Distance of 40 km from Airport to Taipei city centre was covered in 20 minutes by High Speed Rail. Overall commute in Taipei was very easy with Google Maps and well connected metro/bus network. Even travelling around Taiwan is easy. With High Speed Rail you can reach from north to south of the island in just one and half hour. Pretty cool for distance of 300+ km! So you could be based out of Taipei and travel around island without much hassle.

So we stayed at hotel opposite Taipei Main station which made really easy for us to travel around. I was really impressed by Museum in the outskirts of the city. When Chiang Kai-Shek fled to Taiwan, he took artefacts and historical documents with him. So apparently Taipei museum contains more historical things about China than mainland China. Porcelain ware was really impressive with even 500 year old artefacts were as good as new.

One thing I would like to mention is Taiwan has awesome 3G network. We got 3G card, which cost us less than Rs. 500. And great connectivity everywhere at breakneck speed. Even at mountain tops n national parks. We could stream video on youtube on hill stations or check in on Facebook from mountain top. It also helped us to navigate around Taiwan, as we could access google maps from everywhere.

One of the largest national parks in Taiwan, Yangmingshan is in the outskirts of Taipei, which could be reached in 40 minutes from City Centre. This national park has many good mountain trails and hot water springs. We decided to trek Mount Cising, highest peak in Nothern Taiwan. Weather was cloudy, but the view along the trail was really beautiful. Along the way we met few old ladies who were singing mountain songs in Chinese. Reminded me of China episode of Lonely Planet. Good part about the national parks in Taiwan is that they are well connected. So on our way back, when it started raining, we could get back to proper tar road around 250 meters away from us and catch bus to the visitor centre. Hot water springs provided a great way to relax after the trail. Quite an experience in itself!

Every trip should include visiting local markets n trying local cuisines. And Taiwan is known for its exotic food items. On the first day itself we tried Oyster Omlet at Shilin night market. There way few extremely exotic dishes like Snake Soup at Huaxi Night Market. But because of lack of knowledge of Chinese language I decided to skip it as none of the menucards were in English. As many people are aware, actual Chinese food is quite different from Indian Chinese. I can't forget the taste of meat curries n rice. Really awesome! Special thanks to Himanshu for teaching me to eat with chopsticks. Tricky thing, but at least I have learnt basics.

The weather throughout our trip was cloudy. We were waiting for the sun to come out, so that we can go to Taipei 101, second highest tower in the world. But with no sunlight in sight, we decided to go ahead with our plan and visit Taipei 101 in spite of cloud cover. It was stunning view from the top. One could see entire Taipei city from the top, rolling into mountains of Yangmingshan. It was totally paisa vasool view, with clouds floating below. On the last day, we travelled to north of Taiwan for few more rockforms at Yeliu. Some rocks like the 'Queen's head' are wonders of nature.

It was a fun travelling to such less-explored location. Great example of how country can have good infrastructure along with keeping its natural beauty. Public transport is really convenient and comfortable. How much I wish to have such transportation in Mumbai. Trip has generated interest about Chinese Language. Should be an interesting language to learn with pictorial script and tones! Overall a great country to visit. If you want to go to modern country with history and nature, Taiwan is the place to be!