Cuttack, Nov. 9: Barabati Stadium, where Kapil Dev took his 300th Test wicket, has been ruled out as a Test venue for now.

Evidently, the Odisha Cricket Association (OCA) has paid the price for the unruly crowd behaviour during the stadium's first T20 International match recently.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), on the other hand, today picked six additional Test venues at the annual general meeting. The six venues added to the nine existing ones are Ranchi, Indore, Dharamsala, Visakhapatnam, Pune and Rajkot.

Barabati hosted its first Test match in 1987 between India and Sri Lanka. It was here that Dilip Vengsarkar scored 166.

Since then, Barabati has only hosted one more Test match during New Zealand's India tour in 1995-96. However, the match was cancelled due to rain as only 180 overs could be bowled.

Though Barabati has hosted 18 ODIs, seven IPL matches, International Women's World Cup matches and a T20 International, the BCCI batted for Indore, Dharamsala and Ranchi.

In February last year, a three-member BCCI panel had taken stock of the Barabati facilities keeping in view the association's proposal for a permanent Test venue. The committee, led by chairman Anirudha Choudhry, was satisfied with the facilities after inspecting the players' dressing room, media box, pitch, outfield and other indoor facilities.

Official sources said the unruly behaviour of spectators during the second T20 match between India and South Africa on October 5 was to be blamed for the stadium not being named a Test venue. Peeved with the poor performance of the Indian team, the spectators had hurled water bottles into the field during the match.

The incident had raised questions on the police security as well as the association's preparedness to deal with such incidents during international matches at Barabati.

"The BCCI has put Barabati on hold as a Test venue due to the unruly crowd behaviour and subsequent bottle-hurling issue," said OCA secretary Ashirbad Behera.

Behera said the association had submitted its explanation on the incident and the BCCI was conducting an inquiry. A final decision on the issue of Barabati hosting international matches would be taken shortly.

The association sources said it had requested the BCCI to consider Barabati's case since the T20 match was briefly interrupted but could be completed. The behaviour of the crowd had also elicited negative remarks from former cricketers, including Sunil Gavaskar, who had called for a two-year ban on the stadium following the incident.