Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Cricket Association replied to the show cause notice issued by the Odisha government over the floodlight malfunction during the India-England ODI at Barabati Stadium February 9, saying the OCA will take steps to stop repetition of such an incident, an official said Sunday.
The second ODI between the two countries was disrupted for around 30 minutes as floodlights in one of the towers were not functioning.
Embarrassed over the issue, the state government on February 10 issued a show cause notice to the OCA seeking a reply within 10 days.
Speaking to media persons in Cuttack, the newly elected president of OCA, Pankaj Lochan Mohanty, said, “We have submitted our reply to the state government. To ensure that such an incident does not happen again during such important matches, we have decided to deploy two generator sets to supply power to each floodlight.”
His predecessor Sanjay Behera had told reporters earlier that the backup generators could not reach the floodlight tower immediately because the players’ bus was parked near it.
“The driver was not in the bus and he was called up and asked to remove the vehicle after which the generators could reach the tower and the power was restored,” Behera had said.
Mohanty said that after that ODI, another important match was held till 1.30 am and there was no disturbance.
“The BCCI has not sought any report in this matter,” the new OCA chief said.
Mohanty took charge as OCA president after he was elected unopposed for the post. Earlier, he had served as the president of the OCA from 2019 to 2022.
The OCA president post was lying vacant following the resignation of Pranab Prakash Das, a Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader. Das was elected the president of OCA in October 2022 and resigned from the post in December 2024.
In the 2024 assembly elections, the BJP defeated the BJD which was in power for 24 years in the state.
PTI
