Mass biopics blamed for poor pitch as Leicestershire face 27-point penalty

Leicestershire cited the filming of a biopic of former India captain Sourav Ganguly as one of the reasons for the poor quality of the pitch at Grace Road, but the explanation was rejected by the disciplinary panel, which handed the county a 27-point penalty for on-field offences.

The Cricket Discipline Panel has upheld the cricket regulator’s mandate to prepare a “bad pitch” for the Leicestershire County Championship match against Glamorgan on August 20-23.

Leicestershire won the match by 42 runs, but the umpires deducted the 19 points they earned for the win and imposed a further eight-point penalty. The club was also fined £5,000.

The county now has 10 days to appeal the verdict, which threatens relegation from the first division.

Leicestershire’s main grounder Callum Lewin told the Cricket Regulator that several factors beyond his control affected the preparation of the pitch.

“It’s a used pitch this time. We had two T20s on it 10 weeks ago. There were a lot of circumstances leading up to the game that I just couldn’t control, like the weather was 35 degrees.”

“We also had an unscheduled Bollywood shoot four days before (the Glamorgan game) and I wasn’t allowed to work on the pitch. I wasn’t allowed to cover it or anything,” Lewin said.

Filming took place on one day at Grace Road, four days before the match. The Disciplinary Board considered this but rejected it as a mitigating circumstance.

The pitch produced uneven bounce during the match, with the panel noting that the problem was “created by moving cracks”. Referee Ian Ramage recorded 43 cases of uneven bounce in the match minutes.

The panel concluded that Leicestershire had not deliberately prepared a poor pitch, but found that their approach to surface preparation was “unreasonable”.

Leicestershire said they were reviewing the decision.

“The club notes the decision of the Cricket Disciplinary Panel which imposes an eight-point deduction, a further eight-point deduction suspended until the end of the 2027 season and a £5,000 financial penalty.

“After receiving the panel’s decision, the club is reviewing its position and considering all available options,” the club said in a statement.

Leicestershire have 89 points from 12 games and need to beat Hampshire in their ongoing Division One fixture to stay in the top tier of the County Championship.

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Issued by:

Saurabh Kumar

Published on:

17 Sep 2026 15:29 IST