India vs Bangladesh: Part of Kanpur’s Green Park stadium deemed unsafe before 2nd Test | Cricket News

As a result, less than half the capacity of the Balcony C stand will be up for sale during the Test.

“The PWD has raised some issues and we have agreed that we will not sell all the tickets of Balcony C,” UPCA CEO Ankit Chatterjee told The Indian Express.

“We have been told to sell only 1700 tickets for the stand, which has a capacity of 4,800. The repair work will continue for the next couple of days,” he added.

According to PWD officials, there is a big risk if a sizable crowd assembles in that particular part of the stadium. On Tuesday, a group of engineers spent nearly six hours at the Balcony C stand. They have warned the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) to close the stand during the match starting on Friday.

“This stand won’t be able to take the weight of even 50 fans, if they start jumping after Rishabh Pant hits a six. This part of the stadium is in dire need of repair,” a PWD engineer told this paper.

At 5 PM when the workers left the stands, both parties – PWD officers and UPCA officials – held a meeting near the stand and agreed that it wouldn’t be able to take the load to its full capacity.

If the pillars of the old stands can’t take the weight of the fans, the floodlights at the stadium can also be a concern if bad light affects the game. (Pratyush Raj)

The Green Park Stadium is owned by the Uttar Pradesh government’s sports department and in recent years, has not had much international exposure. One of the main reasons is the recently-built Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow, which has better facilities and the UPCA also functions out of there.

“This stadium is not directly under UPCA, and we have a clear window of 40 days before a match to get it ready. We have done our best to keep everything intact before this important World Test Championship (WTC) match,” said Chatterjee.

Floodlights still an issue

If the pillars of the old stands can’t take the weight of the fans, the floodlights at the stadium can also be a concern if bad light affects the game.

The last time India played at the Green Park, the last-wicket pair of Rachin Ravindra and Ajaz Patel secured a draw for New Zealand as poor visibility played its part during the last session of Day 5.

The last 10 minutes of the drawn Test were dramatic with Indian players looking overhead with the hope that the light would improve but having to drag themselves dejectedly into the dressing room as New Zealand survived.

It is almost three years from that epic Test and The Indian Express understands that the floodlights issue has not been redressed yet.

“Eight bulbs of the floodlight near the VIP pavilion are not working properly,” said a sports department officer.

“In Kanpur, visibility has always been a problem. It’s mostly because of the pollution. The last time, India failed to win the Test against New Zealand at this venue because of bad light, ironically when all the floodlights were on. Hopefully, we won’t have to go through that embarrassment again.”