“Puaaaaaaaaannnn…“
It kept piercing the silence, the sound from one solitary horn. Usually, it accompanies revelry at a cricket ground. Here it may as well have been an entreaty. A significant crowd had gathered at Green Park and they wanted to see something, anything, besides the covers that were practically nailed into the turf on Saturday.
Aditya, a young boy, was among them, wearing the India ODI jersey. He had come from out of station to watch his first day of live cricket. Sadly that was too much to ask in Kanpur. His father, in an effort to try and make it up to him, got him a bowl of khasta matar before they made their way back home.
This was not the “Shine Green Park” experience that the stadium officials were hoping for.
Perhaps it was best Aditya and his dad weren’t here on Sunday. They would have been put through an even more perplexing experience. The covers had all been peeled off. The stumps had been put in. Paint was applied to the bowling crease. And best of all there was no rain from at least 8am. It still wasn’t enough for play to take place. The teams didn’t even make it to the stadium.
The weather forecast for this Test was poor. The monsoon which usually recedes by mid-September has been hanging back for a little too long. When the players went off for bad light on the first day, there was torrential downpour. A significant part of why there has been no play over the last 48 hours is because of the rain leading up to them. There has barely been any in the time the game was supposed to be happening. Maybe a drizzle here and there on Saturday. Absolutely none on Sunday. This casts the facilities at Green Park in poor light.
Earlier this month, the Kanpur district magistrate visited the stadium to test its readiness for the India-Bangladesh Test. He had concerns about the drainage system and, according to local reports, left instructions “to fix it in two days”. There’s certainly been some improvement over the years. In September 2017, a Duleep Trophy game held here was put to bed after no play for three successive days.
It might almost have been good if this debacle had happened in front of empty stands, but they’ve been relatively packed. The crowd has found ways to keep their spirits up, belting out slogans, bashing on their drums and creating the festive atmosphere that the venue director Sanjay Kapoor had made a heartfelt plea for. In return, he and the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association have given them a really raw deal. It’s tempting to wonder if they even tried.
On Thursday, when asked about Green Park’s protection against the weather they were facing, Kapoor said, “All covers have been arranged for the pitch, there are two super soppers [they eventually had to borrow one more from Lucknow] and the drainage system is in place. Recently, we encountered the most torrential rainfall, but our stadium wasn’t impacted. Humara test bhagwaan ne le liya hai, baaki ishwar jaane (God has tested us, now we leave the rest to almighty).”
On Sunday, hundreds of people saw the umpires make their inspections. They expected the groundstaff to spring into action after that. But that never happened. A pair of birds spent more time bouncing around on the outfield than anybody who had anything to do with getting it fit for purpose. It was not a good look and it raised a whole load of questions. Some relating to competence, others relating to resources.
“You see organisers do all sorts of things, use iron boxes, hair dryers to dry the ground,” a fan, who works nights and as a result isn’t sure if he can make it back to the match, said on his way out. “You can see them make the effort.
“We spent INR 500 for tickets, sat through for six hours in this humidity, haven’t eaten anything since morning, haven’t slept. We couldn’t even step out of the stadium since we won’t be allowed a re-entry. So we had to stay put hoping that play would start at some point. Even if nothing was possible, if we could have seen Virat [Kohli]’s face or Rohit [Sharma]’s face, that would’ve been worth it.”
There were multiple explanations for the Test sliding into limbo. Up in the press box, the UPCA representatives claimed the delay had nothing to do with the outfield, that it was actually because of bad light. A member of the groundstaff believes that the umpires felt more comfortable starting if the sun had been out. Clearly, they didn’t run this line out to the person manning the big screen because on it flashed the words “Day 3 play called off due to wet outfield.”
Umpires Richard Kettleborough and Chris Brown certainly paid a great deal of attention to the mid-off region for a right-hand batter facing up from the media box end and seemed to point to it when they met with support-staff members from both teams. At no point were they seen with their light meters out. Why would they make so many trips onto the field and check the same parts of it – mid-off, gully, bowlers’ run-ups – if it was just the light that wasn’t right? Whatever the case, at 2pm, the worst-kept secret in Kanpur broke. There could be no cricket possible, in b(ro)ad (day)light and with no rain.
The first two days going by the wayside had a lot to do with the weather. The third one seemed salvageable and the fact that it couldn’t be salvaged only adds to the dysfunction that has surrounded this game. There were protests against this Test by some right-wing political groups. It led to increased police presence, some deployed on the rooftops of houses at the start of each day. The stadium couldn’t support a full house because one of its stands had become structurally unsound. The organisers had to cap entry into it in order to make it safe. The cricket, while it was on, tried its best to be a distraction but it was no match for the constant off-field drama. And then it simply disappeared.
With inputs from Daya Sagar
