Power failure marked the beginning of the official warm-up matches ahead of the ICC World Twenty20, 2014, leaving the host Bangladesh Cricket Board red-faced on Wednesday.
The practice match between Afghanistan and the Netherlands was disrupted at least twice as the floodlights went down after an unexpected power failure at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong.
Netherland innings was delayed by at least 20 minutes as they were replying to Afghanistan’s 150-7. The Dutch were given a revised target of 122 runs in 15 overs, which, however, they failed to achieve.
Witnesses said, the first incident of power failure happened when
the Dutch were about to start their innings.
Authorities managed to restore power supply within 10 minutes before it went off again almost immediately.
Fazle Bari Khan, the venue manager of Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury, claimed that the incident had happened as power supply from the national grid was disrupted in the entire Chittagong city.
‘We were told by the PDB [Power Development Board] officials that the national grid had failed in Chittagong for a certain period,’ Khan told New Age over phone.
‘We do not have any back-up generator here at the moment, so we could do nothing. The BCB has promised to send a back-up generator during the tournament proper,’ he said.
Earlier in 2011, a day-night one-day international between Bangladesh and Pakistan was disrupted because of power failure.
-With New Age input
