Shamik Chakrabarty in Kanpur
Around 8.15 am on Sunday, as the groundsmen started to remove the covers, the Green Park outfield looked soggy. The rain had long since stopped, but a delayed start of the third day’s play of the second Test between India and Bangladesh looked inevitable.
At 9.30 am, the scheduled start of play, the centre square was still under wraps. By 10 am, all the covers were removed and the umpires made an inspection. There were a few soggy patches near the bowler’s run-up and mid-on and mid-off area at the Media Box End and the next inspection was scheduled at 12 noon. Wet outfield was the reason why play couldn’t start.
After the second inspection, the conditions still weren’t found satisfactory and the umpires decided to check things again at 2 pm.
Around two o’clock, the sun had started to peep out. There was not a drop of rain. But the outfield still had enough wet patches to be deemed as unplayable. The umpires dropped the curtain for the day.
Over two-and-a-half days, 235 overs have already been lost in this game and the facilities at this venue have come under the scanner. Green Park is not owned by the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) and every time a match is allotted here, it has to seek permission and clearances from the local municipal body. As regards its renovation, given that it’s not a UPCA property, the whole process is complicated. The government seemingly doesn’t see value in doing it for a centre where international fixtures are few and far between.
Green Park is hosting an international match after a gap of three years and before the start of the Test, UPCA secretary Arvind Kumar Shrivastava told RevSportz the elongated hiatus had a negative effect on everything – from outfield to drainage and floodlights. This is in sharp contrast to how things were organised at Chepauk for the first Test.
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This begs the question, should smaller centres be allotted Test matches? The BCCI sticks to its rotation policy to pick venues for international matches, but Test cricket is the game’s pinnacle and how about reserving five-six elite centres for the longer format, like it is done in England and Australia? White-ball internationals can be rotated between smaller centres.
This correspondent had asked this question to Virat Kohli after an India-South Africa Test in Ranchi in 2019. Kohli, then India captain, suggested that home Tests should be played in five “strong” centres. “We have been discussing this for a long time now, and in my opinion we should have five Test centres, period,” Kohli had said. “I mean, I agree with state associations and rotation and giving games and all that… that is fine for T20 and one-day cricket. But Test cricket, teams coming to India should know, ‘we are going to play at these five centres, these are the pitches we are going to expect, these are the kind of people that will come to watch, crowds.”
Without spectacular batting collapses, the Kanpur Test is likely to end in a draw and there’s a bigger picture here. Before the start of the ongoing series, India needed four more wins to seal their spot in next year’s World Test Championship (WTC) final. The two-Test series against Bangladesh was a good opportunity to complete a clean sweep and move closer to the destination. The win in the first Test consolidated India’s position at the top in the WTC standings, with a percentage point of 71.67. But things can change quickly with a few defeats.
India will play three home Tests against New Zealand after this, followed by a five-Test series in Australia in the winter. The Kiwis are tougher opponents than Bangladesh and facing Pat Cummins & Co in their lair will pose a different challenge, notwithstanding that India have won back-to-back Test series Down Under. If the Kanpur Test ends in a draw and going ahead, if things become tight for Rohit Sharma’s troops, the lack of play here might hurt.
To be fair to the BCCI, it has a democratic approach in terms of allotting matches to its affiliated units. But maybe, the game’s governing body should think about whether venues like Green Park – historic but not modern – meet the standard to host Test matches. Maybe, there’s merit in Kohli’s observation.
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