A venue debacle at cricket's Caribbean Premier League shines a spotlight on how ‘the biggest party in sport’ is run
‘Bizarre,’ ‘ridiculous and crazy’
Originally published on Global Voices
On October 1, cricket fans filled Guyana's National Stadium in Providence to see Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago play. The Caribbean Premier League (CPL) match had a lot riding on it, as it was a semi-final — but there was a glitch, in the form of a floodlight failure, that helped change the course of play.
The eventual result would see the Barbados Royals defeating the Trinbago Knight Riders in a decision that left many supporters of the losing team unhappy, and focused a broader spotlight on the league itself.
In covering the match, the Trinidad and Tobago Express suggested the Barbados Royals had been “minutes away from elimination,” yet “somehow miraculously advanced” to the league's second qualifier after a “thrilling” nine-wicket win:
Faulty floodlights at the Providence Stadium, which delayed play for over two hours, had looked set to send the Knight Riders through to the next round based on the fact that they finished in third position at the end of the preliminary rounds, ahead of the fourth-placed Royals.
But with the match minutes away from being called off, the lights returned, setting the stage for David Miller’s brilliant, unbeaten half century to win the match for the Royals. […]
It marked a thrilling end to a contest, although the Knight Riders will no doubt feel hard done by.
The Barbados Nation newspaper called the floodlight failure “unfortunate,” but could not help but be dazzled by the Royals’ comeback, primarily propelled by batsman Miller's powerful “stunning display of power-hitting,” albeit with less of a run target and facing fewer balls in the limited overs match.
The CPL, for its part, defended its decision, explaining that the calculations were worked out in exactly the same way that they would have been for a rain-related delay. The International Cricket Council (ICC)-approved Duckworth Lewis Stern (DLS) method is intended to fairly calculate the winning side whenever matches are interrupted by inclement weather. It involves re-calculating totals whenever time is lost in a match, based on the number of available batsmen or wickets in hand, and the numbers of overs remaining.
The Trinidad and Tobago team had achieved 168/3 in 19.1 overs before three of the six floodlight towers cut off. “Within half an hour,” the CPL statement read, “two of the three towers were functioning. In the opinion of the on-field field umpires […] the lighting level made it unsafe for play to continue.” Still, both teams were asked whether they wanted to continue playing. The Royals were willing, but The Knight Riders declined, “as was their right.”
Electricity was finally restored to the third floodlight tower just before 11:00 p.m. Guyana time (UTC-4) at which point, using the DLS formula, the match was reduced to five overs, with an achievable target of 60 runs off 30 balls — with a full complement of batsmen — in order to win. The Barbados Royals made it to 64/1, with four balls remaining.
The fact that the floodlight failure happened at all, especially in such a crucial match, left commentators incredulous, with some of them calling the occurrence “bizarre,” “ridiculous and crazy.” Furthermore, the timing of when the lights were restored — Guyana's sports minister, Charles Ramson, said the failure was caused by a “damaged underground cable” — made the eventual result even more controversial.
Via WhatsApp, Trinidadian journalist Lasana Liburd, who runs the news and sports website Wired868, said, “If the lights didn't come back on by a certain time, TKR would have won the match based on standings.” Power was restored “almost to the very minute,” Liburd explained. “If the lights had come back earlier, it would have been a little bit more challenging for the team [Royals]; if they had come back later, TKR would have won. The lights came on at exactly a point in time to give Barbados Royals a huge advantage.”
While some deemed this “lucky” for the Royals, and both sides appeared to take the outcome in stride, many cricket fans were not having it, as seen from several of the responses to this tweet:
What a match!
Barbados Royals have defeated the Trinbago Knight Riders and will continue their journey. #CPL24 #CPLPlayoffs #TKRvBR #CricketPlayedLouder #BiggestPartyInSport #SkyFair pic.twitter.com/t9mMfZrAi3
— CPL T20 (@CPL) October 2, 2024
Conspiracy theories soon began to fly. Like many others, Facebook user Naas Moh'd couldn't even wrap his head around CPL's official statement: “Comms folks… I am cringing !!! Who wrote this ????????”
Photographer David Wears, meanwhile, posted:
To the CPL T20 Organization, while many outside of the fanship of the Trinbago Knight Riders may think we're crying sour-grapes, please understand 1, this particular match wasn't being fought for points. This match was a SEMI-FINAL, of which the winner has the opportunity to play in the #CPLFinal2024. 2, This wasn't a “natural” delay. While it's being played off as a “misfortune”, I'm yet to hear of any INVESTIGATION into it. Who knows what could be the cause. 3. TKR's #NicholasPooran had the opportunity to continue on his run for MOST RUNS, he lost 5 balls of the final over, through no fault of his and no natural weather event. All these opportunities turned to nothing, and no explanation? I'm wondering IF it was host, Guyana Amazon Warriors batting, what would have happened next.
Commenting on the CPL statement thread, Shennel Ramnathsingh agreed:
Rain is so much different from a technical problem. What is the certainty that the floodlights weren't tampered with. What physical evidence is there? This can be premeditated. What is being done to ensure that ‘this doesn't happen again’, furthermore I thought it was common sense to make sure your venue is SUITABLE to host the most important matches in the tournament. Utter disgrace […]
Hailey Douglas countered:
[B]oth are unforeseen circumstances. […] A cable buried underground had to be changed out and any tampering with an underground cable would’ve surely been highlighted by now. This could’ve happened in any country and I urge you to put aside your bias and take a look at the facts. It was an impossible situation and the officials used predetermined ICC rules to reach a solution.
Other social media users commented on everything from the need for “[an] independent investigation [to] help bring some level of credibility to CPL and [by extension] Guyana,” to the fact that the league has “a duty to care.”
Pakistani cricket fan Atiq Ur Rehman Chattha said dryly, “You literally gifted the game to Barbados Royals.” Another bone of contention was the fact that TKR fans felt Nicholas Pooran was denied the chance to make his second straight century in the CPL:
Not only did they rob Nicky P the chance to make back to back 100s, they also conspired to set Barbados an easy target to ensure Trinidad got knocked out. Disgusting to see @CPL
— Kristoff Darian Samm (@kristoffsamm) October 2, 2024
Some social media users were so disillusioned by the decision that they vowed to boycott the league altogether:
Cpl just lost my money with that bs total sabotage tkr postponing the match would have been the better decision
— colin laforest (@lafor72235) October 2, 2024
Trinidadian cricket fan Rajiv Hemant felt so strongly about the way in which the match was handled that he submitted a letter to the editor at Wired868, saying that the incident “has rightfully stirred emotions and outrage among cricketing fans across the Caribbean,” and that for him, it was “the culmination of a lot things that are wrong with the current T20 set up”:
I recall when the WICB [West Indies Cricket Board] and later CWI [Cricket West Indies] managed the regional T20 tournament with regional territories competing for glory and national pride and immense talent bursting at the seams.
Then, in came the European-owned CPL, which negotiated the sole rights to the regional T20 competition and converted it into a franchise tournament, to be run for a profit.
The details of this deal are a major source of contention and the CPL needs to clear the air on whether Cricket West Indies signed over the Caribbean T20 rights to them for 50 years and has so far only earned a paltry US$1 Million. Yes, you heard that right.
Something reeks of a sense of neo-colonialism when a European-based company can acquire the sole rights to a potentially valuable resource in the region, for chicken feed prices, while exploiting its full potential for maximum profits.
Hemant's letter went on to explain how the CPL is run (packages are sold to Caribbean countries who pay millions of US dollars to host), and the league benefits from “rights to ticket sales, very lucrative TV and betting rights, merchandising [and] regional sponsors pay big money to have their names associated with the European-owned CPL brand,” plus the “media value” of global broadcast rights.
Moreover, the letter continued, “under the CPL, territorial rivalry has grown to dangerous proportions, with violence breaking out at matches and the most recent Providence debacle. This not only diminishes all credibility from the CPL but brings our beautiful game into disrepute.”
At the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Cricket Conference earlier this year, Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Keith Rowley made a definitive call for CPL to be revisited, a stance that was supported by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley and Cricket West Indies President Kishore Shallow.
“I similarly echo this call,” Hemant said, “and urge my Caribbean people to let [the floodlight incident] be a catalyst to vociferously call for change to CPL and the way our T20 cricket is managed in the Caribbean.”
The eventual winner of the 2024 Caribbean Premier League turned out to be the St. Lucia Kings, which beat the Guyana Amazon Warriors in the final, prompting Facebook user Lesel Ali-De Silva to declare, “Congrats St. Lucia Kings!! Pretty sure you had the whole of TnT supporting you!!!”