Last Updated on 2 years ago by Charbel Coorey

The Uttar Pradesh Public Works Department (PWD) has deemed one of the stands unsafe and “dangerous” at Green Park Stadium in Kanpur ahead of the second Test between India and Bangladesh. As a result, just 1,700 of the 4,800 seats will go on sale.

Incredibly, the PWD felt the stand will not be able to withhold a full capacity of fans and could come down.

Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) CEO Ankit Chatterjee told The Indian Express that they cannot sell all the tickets. “The PWD has raised some issues and we have agreed that we will not sell all the tickets of Balcony C,” he said. “We have been told to sell only 1,700 tickets for the stand, which has a capacity of 4,800. The repair work will continue for the next couple of days [before the Test]”.

Stand at Green Park in Kanpur deemed unsafe and in dire need of a repair

The Indian Express reported that a group of engineers spent nearly six hours at the Balcony C stand. “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,” said one engineer.

Green Park also has floodlight issues. The last Test on this ground was in 2021, with bad light ending the match at around 4:20pm local time with New Zealand nine down. The issues have not been fixed since.

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

There could be light issues in the second India-Bangladesh Test given overcast conditions are forecast in the first few days. Fans have expressed their frustration on X regarding the state of the stadium.

“How is this venue even given a Test? On top of it, it also has issues of flood lights,” one fan wrote. “Third grade stadiums get to host Test matches meanwhile Eden Gardens last hosted one 5 years ago,” another fan said.