Kanpur experience infuses new life into Test cricket

Certain things in sports never fades away from memory. Like what happened in Kanpur in the second cricket Test between the visiting Bangladesh team and India. As they say cricket is a sport of unpredictability and this Test stands out as one that fits this saying to the hilt! Imagine a contest where rain and rain-affected conditions ensured no play was possible over two days and yet at the end of it all not only did action begin but what is more, a result too was possible! India forced a seven-wicket win for a 2-0 series win and, in the process made sure it was well placed in the race for reaching the summit round in the ICC Test championship.

Unbelievable things that happened in Kanpur’s Green Park stadium. A venue where back in 1969 the great G.R. Vishwanath made his debut for India and made himself famous with a century, had begun to lose ground as one of the best cricketing facilities after the rains that intervened in the Test match. Critics had begun to raise voices on the facilities or lack of them here as much time was lost through wet conditions. Bangladesh was not even halfway through in its opening innings and two days and more had been spent. Things then began to happen in the remaining two days! Where in the earlier days such a Test would have been dismissed as another that was destined to end on a dull and drab note, things proved different. New age, new thinking, all because cricket had evolved from one........

© Mathrubhumi English