A Bollywood shoot for a Sourav Ganguly biopic disrupted pitch preparation at Leicestershire's Grace Road before a crucial match.
The Cricket Discipline Panel dismissed the filming as a minor factor and upheld a "poor pitch" charge against the club.
Leicestershire received a heavy 27-point penalty and a £5,000 fine, plunging them to the bottom of Division One and threatening relegation
An unscheduled Bollywood shoot for a Sourav Ganguly biopic has emerged as a central factor in the pitch row that has left Leicestershire staring at relegation from Division One.
The filming, reportedly for "Dada: The Sourav Ganguly Story" starring Rajkummar Rao as the former India captain, took place at Grace Road four days before Leicestershire's County Championship match against Glamorgan in August.
According to head groundsman Callum Lewin, the shoot stopped him from covering the pitch for eight hours, disrupting his preparation window just days out from the fixture.
Groundsman's Defence
Lewin laid out multiple factors he said were beyond his control when he addressed the Cricket Regulator. Alongside the film shoot, he pointed to the surface having already hosted two T20 matches roughly ten weeks earlier, and temperatures hitting 35 degrees in the lead-up to the match.
"We also had an unscheduled Bollywood filming event four days before... and I wasn't allowed to work on the pitch. I wasn't allowed to cover it or anything," Lewin said.
Regulator Unmoved
Despite the unusual defence, the Cricket Discipline Panel wasn't swayed. The Regulator dismissed the Bollywood shoot as a mitigating factor, noting it accounted for only one day of disruption.
The tribunal acknowledged Leicestershire hadn't deliberately produced a pitch that would bounce so unevenly, but found their overall preparation approach fell short of what was reasonable.
The panel went on to uphold the Cricket Regulator's "poor pitch" charge in full, resulting in a combined 27-point penalty — the forfeiture of all 19 points from the Glamorgan win, an additional eight-point deduction, and a £5,000 fine, with a further eight-point penalty suspended for 12 months.
Standings Fallout
The ruling has hit Leicestershire hard in the table. The penalty dropped them to the bottom of Division One, displacing Hampshire, in the middle of their penultimate match of the season — against Hampshire itself. The club, back in the top flight after a 23-year absence, is now weighing an appeal against a deduction that would all but confirm relegation.
