Odisha govt issues show cause notice to cricket association over power disruption during Barabati ODI

Bhubaneswar: Embarrassed over floodlight failure leading to disruption of the second ODI between India and England at Barabati Stadium in Cuttack, the state government on Monday issued a show cause notice to Odisha Cricket Association, seeking a reply within 10 days.

The Sunday match was disrupted for around 30 minutes as floodlights in one of the towers were not functioning.

In a letter to OCA secretary Sanjay Behera, Odisha's Sports Director Siddhartha Das said, "The OCA is hereby directed to submit a detailed explanation for the cause of disruption and identify the persons/agencies that were responsible for such lapses and outline the measures taken to prevent similar incidents in the future." The findings must be submitted within 10 days upon receipt of this letter, the sports department said.

The letter stated that during the second One Day International (ODI) between India and England on Sunday at Barabati Stadium in Cuttack, floodlights in one of the towers were not functioning and the match was disrupted.

This incident led to about a 30-minute suspension of the match, causing inconvenience to players and spectators, it said.

Speaking to reporters, Sports Minister Suryabanshi Suraj said stringent action would be taken against the persons responsible for the incident and even suggested the arrest of those found guilty.

"This (match disruption due to floodlight failure) is a serious matter and has hurt the sports lovers across the state and pained us. Therefore, the sports department has issued a show cause notice to the OCA. They have sub-committees to look after different aspects.

"Earlier, we had also reviewed the preparations twice to streamline the system. Still, it is yet to be found out as to which committee was in charge of the floodlight and why the backup generator could not reach the place at the appropriate time," the minister said.

Stating that power disruption is not unusual, the minister said it is important as to why electricity was not restored immediately and there was a delay in activating the backup generator.

"We have seen that power disruption takes place in many stadiums. But it gets restored immediately. Why was there no parallel power backup at the place? Why was the parallel line not connected with the generators? Had that been done, the power could have been restored within 15-20 seconds. Technical error is not important, it needs to be ascertained why there was a delay in restoring power at the stadium," the minister said.

The minister, however, thanked the OCA for proper crowd management.

OCA secretary Sanjay Behera had told reporters on Sunday that the backup generators could not reach the floodlight tower immediately because the players' bus was parked near it.

"The driver was not in the bus and he was called up and asked to remove the vehicle after which the generators could reach the tower and the power was restored," Behera had said.

Meanwhile, opposition Congress and BJD have strongly criticised the state government and stated that the incident has brought a bad name for Odisha.