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The outfield at Green Park Stadium in Kanpur, which hosted a rain-curtailed Test between India and Bangladesh, was deemed as "unsatisfactory" by the International Cricket Council (ICC), which has led to one demerit point to the venue, according to ESPNcricinfo.
Only 35 overs were bowled on the opening day of the Test match, and no play was possible on Day 2 and Day 3. Notably, on Day 3, no play took place during the match hours despite no rain in those hours. Meanwhile, the Green Park pitch earned a "satisfactory" rating. India strived hard to push for a result and picked up Bangladesh's 20 wickets in 121.2 overs. The ICC rates pitches from very good to unfit for all international games. One demerit point is handed to venues which get an unsatisfactory rating and three to the ones that are deemed to be unfit. As a result of the MoU with the UP government, the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) uses Green Park Stadium. The land is owned by the UP government, but based on the MOU, the UPCA is responsible for the upkeep of the venue. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) vice-president Rajeev Shukla came out in defence of facilities at the Green Park Stadium. Shukla defended the facilities of the "heritage ground" that has been around for "80 years" and said at that time, "Well, criticism is one thing which we are used to in the administration of the BCCI in cricket. But everything is being criticised." "When we are not giving matches to Kanpur because [of certain reasons], then also I was being criticised. Now we are giving the match, and I am still being criticised for why it has been given to Kanpur. So that goes on," he added. "You know the problem is that this ground is around 80 years old. It is our heritage ground. If you remember, it used to be a permanent Test centre. The original six permanent Test centres were Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, and Kanpur. This is a permanent centre. So, the whole idea was to have Test matches here. This is the first time in 80 years that it rained so much that we were not able to host the match for two days," he added. (ANI)
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