Against abolition of toss: Ganguly

"It remains to be seen whether it is implemented or not. Personally, I am not in favour of toss abolition," Ganguly told reporters at Eden Gardens.

The toss of coin has been a part of international cricket since the very first Test, between England and Australia in 1877 to decide which of the two competing teams get to bowl or bat first.

The coin is flipped by the home captain and the call is made by the visiting skipper.

But its relevance has been questioned in recent past with critics saying that the practice was resulting in unfair advantage to host teams.

If the home team loses the toss, the advantage does not stay, Ganguly pointed.

However, former Pakistan captain Javed Miandad has backed the proposal to abolish toss from Test cricket.

While Miandad said such a move would force the home team to prepare better pitches instead of focusing on preparing tracks that suit them, another former captain, Salim Malik said the International Cricket Council should not tinker with the traditions of the game.

"I don't see any harm in trying out this experiment of abolishing the toss," Miandad said. "It might ultimately lead to matches particularly Test cricket being played on good standard pitches," he said as the ICC's cricket committee meets in Mumbai this month to debate on whether the toss should be abolished from the game.

The committee can

only make recommendations to the ICC chief executives committee.