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Cricket PlayersLights go out of Eden
Thursday’s ODI at Eden Gardens was disrupted for 26 minutes when the floodlights on one of the four towers at the stadium went off during the 49th over of Sri Lanka’s innings.
Thursday’s ODI at Eden Gardens was disrupted for 26 minutes when the floodlights on one of the four towers at the stadium went off during the 49th over of Sri Lanka’s innings.
The reason for the lights going off was not clear and a blame game was on between the relevant ministries of the state with the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) officials claiming there had been a “voltage fluctuation”.
The RPG-run power utility, CESC, which supplies power to the stadium, denied this. “There was no problem with supply. Maybe there was a problem with maintenance,” a CESC official said. The state power minister, Mrinal Banerjee, said he had asked the power secretary to come to his residence on Friday. According to him, there was no problem with power supply and it must have been an internal fault at the stadium.
The state public works department maintains the stadium with the CAB. PWD minister Kshiti Goswami, who was at the Eden, said he would look into this issue. “If the power utility authority made such statements, it is not true. The PWD is only in charge of maintenance, not supply. I will talk to my officials when the office opens on Monday.”
This is not the first time that the floodlights at Eden have failed on a matchday. In April 2008, during the first edition of the Indian Premier League, the entire stadium was plunged into darkness in the middle of a match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Deccan Chargers. There was another, shorter, interruption during a later match in the same tournament.
On Thursday, the lights on the tower behind the scoreboard died at 5.58 pm with Sri Lanka’s total on 307 for six after 49.2 overs. Play resumed after the lights came back on, at 6.24pm.
After an inspection of the venues for the 2011 World Cup, an ICC team had made the following observation about Eden Gardens.
“The time to switch between power sources needs to be checked to ensure that it is immediate so that in the event of failure of the primary source there is no interruption to light. The light levels need to be checked to ensure they meet standards.”
The bulbs on the towers at the Eden are such that they take 15-20 minutes to come to full brightness. Irrespective of whose fault it is, power during day-night matches here, continue to be a problem.
