Floodlight probe casts shadow on Eden matches

KOLKATA: With less than three weeks to go before the Knight Riders play their first home match at the Eden Gardens in IPL-III, an interim report submitted by a government probe committee has recommended that it would not be advisable to hold day and night matches without proper certification of the floodlights.
State chief secretary Asok Mohan Chakrabarti has called a meeting of CAB, CESC and Kolkata Police representatives to discuss the report next Tuesday.The CAB has 12 days to comply with the report. According to one of the recommendations of the committee, the CAB needs to get the entire stadium lighting system, including the floodlights, checked by experts and obtain a “fitness certificate” before they are given the green light to host any day and night match.
This recommendation made by the committee vindicates the initial stand taken by the Kolkata Police after the floodlights fiasco during the December 24 ODI against Sri Lanka that it would not allow any day and night matches at Eden until the problem is sorted out.
During the December 24 ODI, the Eden experienced a partial black-out after floodlights went off on one of the two towers at the High Court end, causing play to be held up for 25 minutes. Worried about security issues, Kolkata Police had held its own inquiry and had warned the CAB that it would not grant permission to hold day and night matches till the cause of the ‘black-out’ was identified and necessary repairs were carried out to guard against such breakdowns.
The CESC, which supplies power to the stadium, had maintained all along that there was no power disruption in the area during the ODI. It was the third instance of a partial black-out at the Eden Gardens. During the first IPL, floodlights at Eden had tripped twice during Knights’ T20 matches, causing embarrassment all-round.