On Tuesday, 1st October, during the Eliminator match of the 2024 Caribbean Premier League (CPL) between the Barbados Royals and Trinbago Knight Riders, an unexpected power outage occurred at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence. The interruption, which took place at 20:58, affected three floodlight towers on the eastern side of the stadium, halting play when 19.1 overs of the Trinbago Knight Riders’ innings had been completed.
Within 30 minutes, two of the affected towers were restored, but the match umpires, Deighton Butler and Nigel Duguid, deemed the lighting insufficient to safely resume the game. Despite the critical nature of the match, the officials allowed both teams to decide whether they wanted to continue in the reduced lighting conditions. The Barbados Royals expressed their willingness to proceed; however, the Trinbago Knight Riders, in accordance with their right, declined due to safety concerns raised by the umpires.
Initially, the broadcast team was informed that play would need to resume by 22:52 to allow for a minimum of five overs, the requirement for a legitimate result. However, this deadline was later revised to 23:01, factoring in the interval time between innings that had been overlooked initially.
Fortunately, power was fully restored to the third floodlight tower by 22:51. After allowing sufficient time for the lights to reach full brightness, match officials decided that play could resume at 23:01, ensuring the match would be completed on the field. Using the ICC-approved Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method, which is the standard for recalculating targets in interrupted matches, a revised target of 60 runs from 5 overs was set for the Barbados Royals.
Reon King, Senior Match Referee for Cricket West Indies (CWI), commented on the situation, stating, “The CPL playing conditions permit up to one hour of extra time in cases of interruptions, such as this power failure, which is treated the same as a rain delay. The safety of players is our foremost priority, but we always strive to achieve a result on the field whenever possible. This principle guided the decisions made during the Eliminator match.”
In the end, the match resumed under full lighting, and a result was achieved, preserving the integrity of the competition.
