India vs England: Floodlight failure stops play during 2nd ODI for 35 mins
CUTTACK: Rohit Sharma and Saqib Mahmood are in the middle of the Barabati Stadium, Cuttack along with the on-field umpires. The rest of the England team had already started walking off the field. For the second time in five minutes, one of the floodlights at the venue had malfunctioned leading to a stoppage of play during seventh over of India's 305-run chase against England in the second ODI on Sunday.
First, the lights went off from 6.15 PM till 6.20 PM, and just as when Mahmood ran in the lights went off again. This time, it did not turn back on till 6.45 PM, leading to a cumulative stoppage of almost 35 minutes. It is understood that the generator that supplies power to the particular floodlight malfunctioned resulting in the tripping of the lights. "The generator attached to the floodlight malfunctioned, so the lights were off on that particular stand behind the clock tower. Now we have got the back-up generator on. It took time to change the connection from one generator to the other, which caused the delay," said an OCA official.
The Barabati Stadium is one of the oldest in the country having been established in 1958. Once a Test venue, the stadium has lost its charm and is in desperate need of renovation. Pankaj Lochan Mohanty, acting president of Odisha Cricket Association, had told this daily on Saturday that the association is in talks with the Odisha government for the stadium renovation. “It was supposed to get renovated. We have made partial renovations as you can see. We have been in talks with the government,” Mohanty had said. "The new government, they are also keen to develop. They wanted to build another stadium. We told them that whatever facility they want to build, it could be done for other sports while redeveloping this stadium for cricket. It will be renovated. The government will help us to renovate and make it a vibrant stadium again,” he had added.
Floodlights going off during a match in India is not the first time. Last year, India-Bangladesh T20I was affected by floodlight issue in Hyderabad. Similarly, the 2022 T20I between India and South Africa in Guwahati also was affected due to floodlight malfunctions.
With inputs from Tanmay Das