With the rare incident of the game being halted twice due to the new LED lights at the Adelaide Oval extinguishing the first day of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy pink ball Test match, it meant the LED system installed in 2023 was in question. commentators. It has now emerged that when the Australian team requested an evening training session at the nets, the lights failed twice and the ground staff switched off the LED lights by mistake and then again within a few seconds, causing a delay of more than 25 seconds. Another 86 seconds later in the 18th over of Australia’s innings.
“According to three sources with knowledge of the events, the ground control room at the top of the Western Stand received a request to turn on the net lights for the throwdown session as Australia’s top order took on India. But when the computer-controlled lighting settings were adjusted, the crowd of 50,186 were surprised by the ground’s four light towers. went out,” The Age reported Saturday morning.
According to the newspaper, when the ground staff went out to turn off the net lights, the lights went out a second time. Captain Rohit Sharma and bowler Harshit Rana along with the Indian team and Australian batsmen Nathan McSweeney and Marnus Labuchagne were also kept waiting for the first time and the second time the players got a break of more than a minute. “They went out to turn on the net lights so the night watchman could do two throw downs, and somehow they got turned on the wrong thing or something was tracked. It was about trying to get the net lights,” a source told The Age.
With some outrage over the issue of floodlights in Adelaide, state Labor MP Tom Koutsantonis posted on social media last night an explanation about the issue. “Any reason for shutting down the light towers at Adelaide Oval was not related to the lack of power supply from the grid,” the Labor MP posted on his social media accounts.
This led commentators to dig into the fiasco as well. “Oh hello. They have run out of electricity in Adelaide. It is very hot today. There are too many air conditioners.” Waugh said on commentary on Fox Cricket. Indian commentator Harsh Bhog also joined Waugh on the issue and shared his thoughts during the two-stoppage break when the lights went out. “Someone is sleepy, so we have to wait. This is a first for me, a Test match being stopped due to the lights going out. Anyone there?”, Bhog said on air. Waugh quickly responded to the Indian commentator. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in Australia.” Waugh said.
Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc, who took 6 wickets the previous day, also expressed his opinion on this matter. “It was quite unusual to go out twice in such a short period of time.” Starc said after the day’s play.
Cricket Australia installed new LED lights in the stadium in December last year at a cost of over $5 million. The stadium had retractable lights in the 1990s before being replaced by floodlights in 2000 and upgraded in 2014. “We had a brief internal switching issue which was quickly identified and rectified,” Cricket Australia said in a statement.