LUCKNOW, Sept. 17 -- No red soil pitch, bad facilities, no seating for fans in the C balcony and no proper drainage system, if it rains. It's going to be the same old story yet again at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur. The stadium is due to host a three-match one-day series between India A and Australia A later this month. The first-ever full-fledged series between the A teams of the two nations at this venue is first of its kind in Uttar Pradesh and the series starts with the first match on September 30, with the other two to be played on October 3 and 5. This first-ever international venue for cricket and also one of the best Test centres on the list of the Board of Control for Cricket in India has been struggling to get a facelift for long, even though the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association has been managing the venue besides paying Rs 1.25 crore annually to the state government as per the terms of a memorandum of understanding (MoU). Much was expected pertaining to a revamp of the venue after the International Cricket Council (ICC) awarded one demerit point to the venue after not a single ball could be bowled on the first three days of the Test match between India and Bangladesh, last September. The actual reason was a 'wet outfield' due to overnight rains. Besides other problems, the drainage system was choked. Despite hurricane efforts put in by the stadium authorities, the situation remains deplorable. As expected, the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association came up with a big plan about revamping the stadium and even BCCI's vice-president and former secretary of the UPCA, Rajiv Shukla promised to take up the issue on a war footing on the last day of the match. But in reality, even after a year since September's 'hotchpotch', nothing serious has been done so far. Immediately after the debacle, a meeting of the UPCA and the district administration in Kanpur discussed the issue in the presence of officials of the Uttar Pradesh Sports Directorate, which owns the stadium. And that is how far things proceeded. "Even if the revamp of the stadium begins today, it will take no less than two years to get ready," UPCA secretary Arvind Kumar Srivastava had said a few months ago. "We have held discussions on this only last week and it has been decided that the UPCA will make a plan for the revamp of the stadium and will submit it to the government for further action," he added. The UPCA officials, who are managing the day-to-day affairs of the UPCA at the Green Park Stadium, said that an initial project of revamping of the stadium worth Rs 250 crore was submitted directly to the office of the principal secretary (sports) a few months back, but there was no response then. In fact, the issue saw the light of day when Member of Parliament from Kanpur, Ramesh Awasthi launched a special campaign to save the Green Park Stadium. "Green Park Stadium is the pride of Kanpur and we all should fight for its survival," he had said. "The revamp of Green Park Stadium is included in the priorities of the chief minister Yogi Adityanath ji. It is a sports heritage not only of Kanpur but of the entire country," Awasthi said during a meeting of the authorities concerned last week. He also emphasised on increasing the spectator capacity of the stadium, upgradation of drainage system, renovation of media center, multi-level parking, provision of special facilities for elderly and 'divyangjan' spectators. However, UPCA's nodal officer at the Green Park, Sujit Srivastava on Tuesday said that a decision to use the C balcony at the venue is yet to be taken as the public works department has already inspected the facility. "No decision has been taken yet about the use of the C balcony for the three one-day matches between India A and Australia A. PWD officials have already inspected the gallery and much will depend on the flow of the fans for the match," said Srivastava....