Who is to blame for Kanpur embarrassment: BCCI or UPCA? Indian team prepares for harsh WTC repercussions

For the second consecutive day, India's second Test against Bangladesh has been plagued by unplayable conditions, with only 35 overs bowled over the course of three days. With only two full days remaining, India is running out of time to secure a victory and earn valuable World Test Championship points. It is uncertain who will be held responsible for the lack of play - the Board of Control for Cricket in India, which assigned the Test to the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association, or the UPCA, who have overseen the scheduling of the match. However, ultimately, assigning blame may be irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. The important question is whether or not India will be able to increase their points tally and stay in contention for the championship.

It was little short of ironical that even as the BCCI’s outstanding new Centre of Excellence (as the National Cricket Academy will henceforth be known) was presented to the media in Bengaluru on Sunday afternoon, the third day’s play in Kanpur was declared a non-starter. This, despite the fact that it hadn’t rained since around 10.00 am, just like it hadn’t the previous day too, when also not a single ball was bowled.

One must go back to 2015, and coincidentally Bengaluru, to unearth the last time two consecutive days had to be abandoned in a Test involving India at home. But in that instance, in AB de Villiers’ 100th Test, there was a valid reason. There was hardly any let-up from the elements, it just kept raining and raining and raining, preventing any play on the last four days. No excuses this time around, with wet patches on the outfield rather than incessant rain being the culprit.

Wet patches? In this day and age? Where is the drainage? And, if there is no adequate drainage, why was Kanpur gifted a game when there are more than a dozen Test centres in India?

Green Park used to be a permanent stop in the Indian Test calendar in an era gone by. But it seems as if time really has passed Green Park by, that it’s trapped in a time warp while the rest of the world has moved on. The drainage is almost pretty much the same as it was in 1969, when Gundappa Vishwanath celebrated his Test debut against Australia with a second-innings 137. Don’t India’s cricketers deserve better? Doesn’t cricket deserve better?

Less than three weeks back, Afghanistan’s cricket board came under reasonable ridicule for having chosen to play a one-off Test against New Zealand in Greater Noida, a match which saw no slice of action. There was little rain during the scheduled five days of the game, the offending party was the drainage and the lack of adequate covers. Tut-tut, we said. We offered them Bengaluru and Lucknow, but they chose Greater Noida, we carped. Serves them right, we left unsaid. What do we say now?

There is much to commend the BCCI for and, truth to tell, it has been commended enough too. But how does one explain away this avoidable embarrassment? If the UPCA did have to host a Test match, why wasn’t Lucknow the chosen venue? After all, it is a much more modern and play-friendly ground and will host the Irani Cup game between Mumbai and Rest of India from Tuesday, so there are no concerns regarding its game-readiness. Why did it have to be Kanpur, whose Green Park is such a misnomer?

No sport is as finicky as cricket when it comes to playing conditions, and with good reason. If reasons beyond one’s control contribute to a loss of play, one can put their hand up and say, ‘What can we do?’ But Kanpur is a manmade disaster, which is unforgivable when there is so much lip service to state-of-the-art and professionalism. It might be convenient and easy to point a finger at the groundstaff and nitpick about their inefficiency and inability to react quickly, but why have they been put in this position in the first place?

Each year, the BCCI disburses handsome sums in excess of ₹75 crore to its member units so that, among other things, they can upgrade their cricketing infrastructure. The UPCA might have used those funds judiciously at other grounds, perhaps, but at Green Park? No sir. Which is why the red faces.