Is BCCI or UPCA to blame for the embarrassment in Kanpur as the Indian team prepares for a brutal WTC impact?

They call it Green Park, but for much of Saturday and a few hours on Sunday it looked more like the Blue Lagoon. After all, blue was the color of the blankets that covered one of India's oldest international cricket venues, in Kanpur – ineffectually, as it turned out.

No play was possible in India's second Test against Bangladesh for two days in a row; Only 35 overs were bowled in three days. Assuming there are no further disruptions – and one has to be bold to make that assumption – India only has two full days to try to force the issue through. If they fail to do so, which is more likely given the time constraints, they will lose valuable points for the World Test Championship. Who will take the blame – the Board of Control for Cricket in India, which awarded the Test to the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association, or the UPCA, under whose watch this fiasco took place? Actually, forget it. How important is it? Will it increase India's points tally?

It was almost ironic that the third day's match in Kanpur was declared unavailable when the BCCI's outstanding new Center of Excellence (as the National Cricket Academy will be known) was unveiled to the media in Bengaluru on Sunday afternoon. And that despite the fact that it hadn't rained since around 10 a.m., just like the day before, when not a single ball was thrown.

You have to go back to 2015 and coincidentally to Bengaluru to find out the last time India had to miss two consecutive days in a home Test. But in this case, in AB de Villiers' 100th Test, there was a valid reason. The elements barely let up, it rained and rained and rained, meaning no game could take place for the last four days. There are no excuses this time, the cause is wet patches on the outfield rather than incessant rain.

Wet spots? In this day and age? Where is the drainage? And if there is no adequate drainage, why was Kanpur given a game when there are more than a dozen testing centers in India?

Green Park was a regular fixture in the Indian Test calendar in times gone by. But it seems as if time has truly passed Green Park by, as if he's caught in a time loop while the rest of the world has moved on. The drainage is almost the same as in 1969 when Gundappa Vishwanath made his Test debut against Australia with a second innings 137. Don’t India’s cricketers deserve better? Doesn’t cricket deserve better?

Less than three weeks ago, the Afghan cricket board came under appropriate ridicule for its decision to play a one-off Test against New Zealand in Greater Noida, a game that saw little action. There was hardly any rain on the planned five match days, the cause being drainage and the lack of sufficient coverings. Toot-toot, we said. We offered them Bengaluru and Lucknow but they chose Greater Noida, we grumbled. Serves them right, we didn't say it. What do we say now?

Why did it have to be Kanpur?

There is a lot for the BCCI to be praised for and to be honest, it has been praised enough. But how can this avoidable embarrassment be explained? If the UPCA actually had to host a Test match, why wasn't Lucknow chosen as the venue? After all, it is a much more modern and player-friendly pitch and will host the Irani Cup match between Mumbai and the rest of India from Tuesday, so there are no concerns about game readiness. Why did it have to be Kanpur, whose Green Park is such a misnomer?

No sport has playing conditions as delicate as cricket, and for good reason. When reasons beyond your control lead to a game loss, you can raise your hand and say, “What can we do?” But Kanpur is a man-made disaster, which is unforgivable when there is so much lip service to modernity Technology and professionalism exist. It may be convenient and easy to point the finger at ground staff and mock their inefficiency and inability to respond quickly, but why were they put in this position in the first place?

Every year the BCCI pays out hefty sums of more than ₹75 crore to its member units to enable them to improve their cricket infrastructure, among other things. The UPCA might have put these funds to good use elsewhere, but at Green Park? No, sir. Hence the red faces.