Caption: A floodlight off at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence, Guyana. Photo: CPL via Getty Images
By Prior Beharry
A FLOODLIGHT at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence, Guyana, came on one minute before the initial cut off time in the first eliminator game of the 2024 Caribbean Premier League (CPL) between the Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) and the Barbados Royals on Tuesday night.
The initial cut off point was 10.52 pm, but this was subsequently revised to 11.01 pm “to account for the time allowed for the interval between innings which had not been initially include,” the CPL said in a statement on Wednesday night.
CPL stated that there was loss of power to all three floodlights on the eastern side of the ground during the game at 8.58 pm when 19.1 overs of TKR innings had been completed.
It stated, “Within half an hour, two of the three towers were functioning. In the opinion of the on-field field umpires, Deighton Butler and Nigel Duguid the lighting level made it unsafe for play to continue.
“Nevertheless, given the importance of the game, both teams were offered the opportunity to continue playing in the reduced lighting. While the Barbados Royals were willing to continue, the Trinbago Knight Riders, as was their right, did not want to carry on playing in conditions which the umpires had decided were unsafe. “
CPL stated that power was restored to the third floodlight tower at 10.51pm and, after making an allowance for enough time for the lamps to achieve maximum brightness, the match officials made the decision to re-start the game at 11:01pm, ensuring that a result could be achieved on the field of play.
It stated, “The ICC approved DLS (Duckworth–Lewis–Stern) calculator, which is utilised at the innings break of every CPL game, and which is the universally accepted method used to determine revised targets in an interrupted game was applied, and a target of 60 from the five overs was generated.
Reon King, CWI senior Match Referee, who was in charge of the Playing Control Team on the night, said: “The Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League playing conditions allow for one hour extra time to be added to a game before overs are lost, and a failure of floodlights is treated in exactly the way as an interruption for rain.
“The priority for the match officials team is always for the safety of players, but they also work to try and see if the outcome of a game, one way or another, can be achieved on the field of play. This was the focus applied during the eliminator match.”
When the lights went off, TKR were batting 168 for 3 with Nicholas Pooran unbeaten on 91 and Andre Russell on 20 not out.
TKR innings was therefore cut short and using the Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method, the Royals were set a target of 60 runs from five overs. It was achieved in 4.2 overs with Player of the Match David Miller scoring 50 not out.
Many TKR fans took to social media to voice their satisfaction, some saying it was sabotage that the score that they team had posted would have been insurmountable by the Royals in 20 overs.
Some also noted that Pooran has accumulated 504 runs in CPL 2024 and was just short of Colin Munro’s 567 in 2018 for the most runs in a single season.
Even TKR batter Andre Russell took to social media voicing his opinion with some expletives saying that he felt robbed.
He said, “I am not the person to come out on the Internet and voice my opinion, but this year, CPL, I feel robbed of this light situation.”
Speaking after the game TKR captain Kieron Pollard was gracious in defeat.
He said, “You prepare for any circumstances. If rain had fallen or something like that, it would have been the same sort of instance where you have to gear up and be prepared to play. Once the lights were on, we were always ready to play within the rules and regulations of the game.”
He added, “We saw the class of Nicky P today again, batting on a tough wicket, getting us to a decent total at that point with four of five overs to go. It was always going to be difficult for Barbados to chase that, but in the circumstances, certain things happened that we have no control over.”
Royals captain Rovman Powell said, “At one point, we thought we were out of the competition once the lights started giving problems. It’s unfortunate that the lights went off, or it would have been a beautiful cricket. It’s just unfortunate for a good TKR team to be on the wrong side of luck tonight.”
See related story below:
