The International Cricket Council (ICC) has not been satisfied with the outfield of the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur, which hosted the rain-affected second Test between India and Bangladesh, which ran between September 27 and October 01. They have rated it as ‘unsatisfactory’ before handing a demerit point for the venue.
Only 35 overs were possible on the opening day of the Test match before the persistent rain pushed for an early end to the game. No play was possible on the second and third days that saw no rain during the scheduled playing hours. In the lead-up to the contest, the state’s public working department had already addressed the Green Park Stands as unsafe and advised the authorities to limit the number of fans.
The ICC rating has now put the stadium under real pressure of losing the chance to host international games in the future. The Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) used the stadium based on an MoU it signed with the government, which owns the land, but as per the MoU, the responsibility falls on the UPCA.
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Many called for a change of structure for the future game, but the BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla, who also hails from Kanpur, defended the venue, which has been hosting Test cricket since 1952.
Is Green Park Stadium suspended from hosting international games? ICC gives report
Despite the loss of two and half days, India decided to make some movement to squeeze up a result as the captain of the side, Rohit Sharma, and his opening partner, Yashasvi Jaiswal, began on an aggressive mode before the rest of the batting department followed it. The home side cracked 383 runs in just 52 overs at a run-rate of 7.36.
They also picked up 20 wickets in the space of 121.2 overs, which forced them to earn a victory. But the ICC rates the pitch and the outfields for all the international games on the scale of very good to unfit- very good, satisfactory, unsatisfactory, and unfit. One demerit point is awarded to the venues for an unsatisfactory rating, while they increase it to three for an unfit rating.
If any ground receives five or more demerit points in a five-year rolling period, it will be suspended from hosting any international game for the next 12 months.
India’s home season started at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai against Bangladesh. None of the other venues for the 2024-25 international season got any alarm from the ICC. The outfield of Chennai has been rated very good, as India dominated at the place thanks to their premier and veteran all-rounders Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
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All three pitches of the New Zealand series have earned a ‘satisfactory’ remark from the ICC. The first game in Bengaluru saw India getting bundled out for just 46, which is their third-lowest innings total in the history of the format. The rare defeat pushed the management to go for two successive slow and low turners for the second and third encounters in Pune and Mumbai.
Questions could have been raised over the pitch of the Pune Test, where, at one point, it felt like a nightmare to hold the bat. But the ICC had no problems with it. It will be interesting to see the upcoming results for the Kanpur outfield after the new ratings and if they get renovated in the future by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).