Light trouble for day-night tie

Sabi Hussain

Tribune News Service

Greater Noida, August 23

The Duleep Trophy, which was supposed to usher Indian cricket into the new era with the hosting of the inaugural pink-ball first-class match under lights, was marred by the recurring power failures.

The failures resulted in the malfunctioning of two floodlights at the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik sports complex here today.

The multiple power failures left the Indian cricket board’s (BCCI) senior office-bearers embarrassed and red-faced as the blackout led to the loss of more than an hour’s play in the final session of the opening day.

The first power failure occurred during the post dinner-break session as the floodlights at the north and north-west stands went off for a good 20 minutes at around 6:50 pm. The match resumed at 7:15pm. 

As the players got along with the proceedings, a second power failure occurred at 7:55 pm and the same two floodlights went off. 

India Green, who were 21/1 in three overs before the dinner break, had slumped to 36/3 in 9.3 overs and were trailing India Red by 125 runs in the first innings.

The organisers scurried to fix the floodlights, but it took them a good 45 minutes to get the lights back on. It was finally at 8:40 pm that the umpires came out for an inspection. 

All the five floodlights were installed by Dev Musco Lighting Pvt Ltd, a compnay run by former India captain Kapil Dev. The three floodlights run on the generator while 

the other two, which went off, get direct supply from the Greater Noida electricity department.

According to a stadium official, the spark in the conductor attached to the floodlights resulted in the power failure.

It is pertinent to mention that the Vijay Singh stadium had never hosted a day/night fixture and it was for the first time that the floodlights were made operational. It’s inexplicable how the BCCI could host such an important at a stadium that has never before used the floodlights.

When The Tribune contacted the stadium officials, a blame game started between the BCCI and the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) officials.

Match hosted by Greater Noida Development Authority

However, it was revealed to everyone’s surprise that the Greater Noida Development Authority (GNDA) is hosting the Duleep Trophy, not the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA).  

It was learnt that BCCI president Anurag Thakur directly entered a contract with the GNDA, keeping the UPCA officials in the dark about the match. The Ghaziabad Cricket Association had shown interest in hosting the Duleep Trophy, but MV Sridhar, general manager (cricket operations), ruled out any such possibility.

When the UPCA objected to it, it was agreed by the BCCI that four of the UPCA officials would be deputed for the matches, but they won’t intervene in the functioning of the GNDA officials.