The Board of Control for Cricket in India on Thursday released the schedule for the Indian team's home season of 2016-17. India is hosting New Zealand, England, Australia and Bangladesh for as many as 13 Test matches between September and March, along with eight One-Day Internationals and three Twenty20 Internationals.

The last time India played so many Tests at home in a single season was 1979-80, when they hosted Australia and Pakistan for six Tests each and England, for one.

The question: are these about five or fix Tests too many for a home season?

Advance planning

This is also the first time the BCCI has announced the schedule more than three months before the start of the season. The board has long been criticised for keeping teams and fans in the dark by announcing fixtures and venues only days before a series begins.

New Board Secretary Ajay Shirke said in a statement that announcing the schedule in advance this season "gives the staging associations and the BCCI sufficient time to prepare and present one of the most memorable cricketing seasons for our fans."

True to form, though, the Board has not yet announced the dates of the matches. Nor have they informed the fans where and when they can buy the tickets. The BCCI had been criticised for this same reason as recently as the World Twenty20 in early 2016, when fans had no idea where to purchase tickets in advance.

Still, the BCCI seems to be trying to shake off the lethargy. Since assuming office in May, the new president, Anurag Thakur, has also been making all the right noises with regard to promoting Test cricket in the country and making the format lucrative to players. He has spoken of initiatives such as reserving 10 per cent of the tickets for students during Tests and having clean and green stadiums.

Consistency in numbers

It's a step in the right direction, but the BCCI would do better if there was some consistency to the home season. In the last five seasons, India have hosted 19 Tests – a figure that was bloated by the 2012-13 season, when 10 Tests were played at home. The 2014-15 season did not have a single home Test.

And if you look at the International Cricket Council's Future Tours Programme, which has every team's itenerary until the 2019 World Cup, India is scheduled to host only six Tests in the 2017-18 season and four in the 2018-19 one. This chart gives you a picture of how irregular India's home season roster has been this decade:

In 2012-13, when India last hosted Test matches in double digits, a major chunk were against England and Australia (four each), quite similar to the 2016-17 season (five and four, respectively). This suggests that a similar surge in home Tests can be expected every four years, when the other two of cricket's Big Three are scheduled to tour India.

While there is nothing wrong in playing four to five Tests each against England and Australia, can the BCCI not consider hosting the same number of matches when other teams come touring? Yes, a series against Sri Lanka, New Zealand, West Indies or Bangladesh will not be as lucrative as those against top teams such as England, Australia or South Africa, but perhaps the Board can consider distributing the matches more evenly, so that the total number of Tests played is around the same per season. Or, it can space host England, Australia and South Africa in separate seasons.

England, as a rule of thumb, play only seven home Tests every season, regardless of their touring schedule. Australia play anywhere between four and six. All these matches are played in the summer/Christmas vacations of both countries, so that they attract a large crowd every year.

India's summer in April-May is taken over by the Indian Premier League, and it's too hot to play Test matches then anyway. But can the BCCI think of a way in which the period between the festive season, which begins in September, and the winter break in December-January can be optimally utilised to host home series?

This may not always be possible, because if India were to host a Test series every December-January, they would not get to travel to Australia and South Africa, whose home seasons peak at that time. However, if India had some consistency in their home season calendar, it would help build a tradition such as Australia's Boxing Day Test every year. If the BCCI can be smart, India can hope to build a culture of watching and enjoying Test cricket in the country.

Consistency in venues

One of the other big announcements on Thursday was that six grounds in the country will host their first ever Test match this season: Rajkot, Vizag, Pune, Dharamsala, Ranchi and Indore. This takes the number of India's Test venues to 16. While this is great news for these new venues, it also means that traditionally popular grounds such as Eden Gardens in Kolkata, the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, and Chennai's MA Chidambaram Stadium will get progressively fewer matches.

In England, there is at least one Test every year at Lord's and The Oval. In Australia, it's the same with the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the Sydney Cricket Ground. In comparison, Eden Gardens and the Wankhede Stadium last hosted a Test match in November 2013, during Sachin Tendulkar's farewell series, while for Chennai it was during Australia's tour in 2012-13.

It's fair that Test matches are being distributed to different parts of the country, but if the BCCI can identify four or five main grounds – based on tradition and the number of spectators – where at least one Test is held every year, it would only strengthen the cricketing culture.