Green Park inspires red sentiment

Kanpur: When queried about Green Park stadium’s preparedness in eventuality of the forecast rain on the eve of the second Test, Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association’s venue director Sanjay Kapoor said 'God will take care of it' to the amusement of many. 

“God has given us this Test and we leave the rest to him,” Kapoor said that had a few visiting journalists in splits. Going by the farce which has unfolded over the weekend, one which has seen two days of the second Test between India and Bangladesh being wiped out despite not a drop of rain on Sunday, it’s evident that even the Almighty can’t work a miracle if the humans involved in charge of conduct of a game are inefficient and indifferent.

While Saturday was challenging considering the heavy rain which lashed the city overnight, it still doesn’t absolve them because from 10 am, the downpour stopped only to return later in the night. Light was not good till noon but it improved significantly after that. The ground staff though made very little effort to get play ready. 

Sunday was criminal. There wasn’t a drop of rain since 6 am but not a single ball could be bowled because of wet patches in a few areas of the ground — the cover/ fine-leg area, some sections near the boundary line as well the bowlers’ run-up. Umpires Chris Brown and Richard Kettleborough conducted inspections at 10 am, 12 noon and 2 pm before calling off play because of “wet outfield”.

What was shocking and irked thousands of fans, was the total lack of effort on part of UPCA or the ground staff to dry those wet patches. 

Barring running the superspies multiple times, the ground staff, many who are hired on daily-wage basis just for the duration of the game, lacked the knowledge to deal with such contingencies. They nor UPCA officials didn’t know how to fix the wet patches and just banked on sunlight to get the job done. 

So, this begs the question should BCCI go back to the old formula of hosting Test matches in only traditional venues likes Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi and may be Ahmedabad which are equipped with the latest facilities to deal with such eventualities.

Also, unlike Green Park that’s stuck in a time wrap, administrators in other major venues have invested significantly to counter challenges posed by rain and other elements with KSCA boasting of the state of the art SubAir system.     

When the BCCI under the Anurag Thakur regime expanded the list of Test centres to cities such as Ranchi, Dharamsala and Indore etc, then-skipper Virat Kohli felt it was a wrong idea, saying one should be playing the longest format in only five venues without naming them.

Kohli opined that if BCCI wants to spread the game to all parts of the country which is extremely essential for its growth, then it can conduct T20Is and ODIs there. He wanted India to follow the England and Australia model where Tests are played in only specific historical venues.

The reason Kohli made such a bold statement was because, apart from facilities (on and off the field), he wanted India to maximise the home advantage. England and Australia, who play cricket at home only during their respective summers, know exactly what they are getting at Lords or MCG.

Compare that with India where so called ‘home’ advantage is only on paper. Given geographic differences, each venue is unique in its character and it’s a lot harder for players to adapt if the list is big as 16 now. The pitch and conditions vary at different times of the year and ace spinner R Ashwin too spoke about the immense challenges they encounter following his Player of the Match performance in Chennai. 

While players may have been happy to take a draw without having to play much while leading 1-0 in the second and final Test a decade ago, things are a lot different now with World Test Championship points are up for grabs. Series win alone is not enough, number of wins matter a lot. 

With just two days left in the Test against Bangladesh, it’ll be nothing less than a miracle if India can extract a result. Although they won’t be dislodged from the summit (71.67 percentage points), the two-time runners-up have a trickier path ahead. They host New Zealand for three games followed by a five-match tour to Australia. If results don’t go their way in Australia, the Kanpur draw — although no-one knows what would have happened if the game had taken place — could hurt them.