"Successful hosting of the proposed matches will open the chance for organizing other day-night international matches in the future," an elated Shukla said.

It's now confirmed that the city will host two matches of the IX Indian Premier League at the Green Park stadium on May 19 and 21.

The IPL commissioner Rajeev Shukla on Saturday confirmed to ToI from New Delhi, that the IPL governing body has given the green signal for the matches on Friday night. Gujarat Lions will play two games against Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians on May 19 and 21 respectively. Both the matches will begin at 8 pm.
He said, that BCCI's chief cameraman SK Srikant's report has helped the governing body to reach on a decision.

When Shukla, was asked why there was no official announcement was made about it, he said that Kanpur already figured in the schedule, and it was almost finalized subject to the condition of the floodlights at the venue. "And finally, Srikant gave the thumbs up nod on Thursday," he added.

With IPL matches, the stadium here will come into the list of venues to host day-night matches. Though, the floodlights were in stalled at the stadium way back in the year 2000, but so far not a single international day-night has been played here so far. "Successful hosting of the proposed matches will open the chance for organizing other day-night international matches in the future," an elated Shukla said. He informed that Srikant's report was deliberated upon during the IPL governing body's meeting in New Delhi. The chief cameraman, in his report, stated that light was sufficient and matches could be played."

Lalit Khanna, CEO of Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association, said that he was optimistic about hosting the games from the Day One when the name of the city was figured in the IPL list. He, and other members of UPCA had started working in that direction thereafter. He admitted that UPCA has no experience of organizing day-night matches, but said that he and his team is confident of a smooth show in the coming days.
The directors of UPCA, Prem Dhar Pathak, SK Agarwal and Prem Manohar Gupta expressed happiness after allotment of the matches. They said, the visit of tournament director Catherine and others, proved successful as they helped UPCA to present the things in a proper manner as required by the IPL.

Source: TNN