CPL match should have continued next day

THE EDITOR: TT nationals are having a tougher than usual week. First it was a sad excuse for a budget that was void of crime solution indicators, then came the imbroglio that saw our beloved Trinbago Knight Riders’ (TKR) scandalous exit from the CPL tournament.

Firstly, I would like to make it clear that there’s no indictment on the Barbados Royals (BR) who performed commendably in the five overs allotted to them. The issue here lies with poor decision-making by CPL officials.

Two sets of lights mysteriously went out in the Providence Stadium in Guyana after 19 overs and one ball was bowled and star batsman N Pooran was poised to reach his fourth CPL century. Moreover, having 168 runs at that time, TKR was positioned to attain additional runs and likely win the important match to move on in the competition.

Incredibly, the lighting anomaly was resolved just in time for the over/run reduction methodology to be applied. That meant that BR had five overs to make 60 runs for victory, which they did.

Understandably, like any other organisation, the CPL conforms to specific rules and regulations which it applies to the respective circumstances/situations. But there must be leeway for unique situations. In other words, rules never cover every occurrence. There is always something unforeseen that requires a solution “outside the box” and even subsequent regulation changes. The lighting fiasco was one such paradigm and I feel that TKR captain K Pollard should have voiced such a concern in lieu of his seeming acceptance.

Basically, the spurious lighting failures were treated as a rainfall delay. By taking this dogmatic approach, match officials either failed to seriously consider the following or turned a blind eye:

* The timing of the lights going on and off seemed orchestrated and unlikely to be by chance and should be properly investigated.

* Thousands of CPL fans would scream sabotage.

* By virtue of the anomaly occurring in Guyana, sporting rivalry between citizens of Guyana and TT can change to resentment – a situation in direct contrast to the harmony among Caricom countries that CPL has been achieving.

* Less attendance at certain CPL matches in the future.

The uniqueness of the situation adjunct to the foregoing aspects should have prompted the officials to apply special consideration for a more normal continuation of the match. The match should have continued in the afternoon of the following day.

DEXTER RIGSBY

Mt Lambert