Bhubaneswar,10th Feb 2025:On Sunday, during the second India-England match at Barabati Stadium, a floodlight failure led to a 30-minute disruption. Such negligence in an international-level event has raised concerns over the Odisha Cricket Association’s (OCA) preparedness and could hinder the state’s chances of hosting major matches in the future.
Following the incident, the Odisha government has sought clarification from OCA. State Sports Minister Suryabanshi Suraj confirmed that the match was halted for 25 minutes due to the issue. Consequently, today, the Sports Department has issued a show-cause notice to OCA, demanding an explanation within ten days regarding why the floodlights failed during the match. The notice specifically mentions that the match was disrupted for 30 minutes due to the outage.
Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and other senior ministers were present at the stadium during the incident. The Sports Minister stated that OCA would be asked to clarify the floodlight failure despite all the precautionary measures and prior arrangements.
The problem occurred in the seventh over while India was chasing the target. One of the floodlight towers malfunctioned, leaving a section of the ground in darkness. On-field batsmen Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill had to leave the field, leading to disappointment among players and spectators.
OCA attributed the failure to a mechanical issue with the light generator. OCA Secretary Sanjay Behera admitted that a delay occurred in bringing the backup generator due to a parked team bus obstructing the path. He also mentioned that identifying the bus driver caused further delays.
Meanwhile, Barabati-Cuttack Congress MLA Sophia Firdous condemned the failure, calling it “extremely unfortunate” and demanding an impartial investigation.
Despite the setback, Rohit Sharma silenced critics by scoring 119 runs off 90 balls, achieving his 32nd ODI century. Post-match, CM Majhi also praised his innings and acknowledged the efforts of both teams and the spectators.
While OCA has blamed the failure on a technical glitch and promised to prevent such occurrences in the future, the incident has raised concerns about Odisha’s preparedness as a high-profile match host and questioned its reliability in organizing major cricket events.
