The 67-year-old Barabati Stadium, which has been hosting international cricket matches since 1982 and floodlit matches since 2003, invited embarrassment as one of the six towers of the floodlights malfunctioned during the second ODI between India and England here on Sunday.
The incident happened when the tower adjacent to the iconic clock tower malfunctioned, resulting in a brief stoppage of play, at 6:15 PM.
Play began before the tower was completely switched off again. The players and umpires waited for about 10 minutes before walking off the ground.
At that stage, India, chasing 305, was at 48 for no loss in 6.1 overs with captain Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill batting on 29 and 17, respectively.
It took some time for the stadium staff to switch on the lights, which were installed as part of the renovation process in 2022, around 6:45 PM.
“The generator attached to the floodlight malfunctioned, so the lights were off on that tower near the clock tower. We got the back-up generator on. It took some time to change the connection from one generator to the other, which caused the delay,” said an Odisha Cricket Association (OCA) official.
It was disappointing for a packed house of nearly 45,000 fans as many of them tussled in the run-up to the match to purchase tickets priced between Rs. 700 and Rs. 20,000.
