The injury to New Zealand cricketer Rachin Ravindra during an ODI match against Pakistan at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium set the stages buzzing ahead of the beginning of the Champions Trophy. In a rather bizarre and worrying incident, Ravindra was unable to see the ball in the brightness of the floodlights at the venue and suffered a serious injury that made him all bloodied on the field. While some big shots in Pakistan’s cricketing fraternity admitted that the LED lights at the venue seem to be causing some trouble, others have refused to make corrections. Instead, they blamed Rachin for the injury.
Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt is one of those who brushed aside the criticism towards the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) since the incident. He has also commented on the outlandishness of the talks around the ICC event being shifted to another country.
“There’s really no use in making people understand things when they don’t want to. These are the latest LED lights installed, so all is fine. When New Zealand players struck sixes off deliveries bowled at close to 150 kph, were the lights not working at that time? A player who was standing 70 meters away failed to take the catch because of his misjudgment. He is a fine fielder, but maybe his leg slipped and he got hurt,” Butt said on a local news channel.
A Pakistan news anchor sustained a similar view while highlighting a failure of floodlights during the India vs England ODI match, thus bringing the game to a halt for a few minutes.
“There have been many such past campaigns which stated that Pakistan cannot host a tournament as big a Champions Trophy, with unprepared stadiums as a reason. I want to ask the same people, ‘What do you think of what happened at Barabati Stadium? That’s an established stadium.” So, I appeal that this is the way it is. This is nothing big. Just because Rachin got hits in the face, PCB should not be blamed for it,” he stated.
There are still others that think PCB is not in a position to host tournaments of such caliber like the Champions Trophy.
“We don’t have the money. Whatever little procedures are done to maintain the stadiums are purely from state associations,” said Tanvir Ahmed, ex-Pakistan cricketer.
Hanif Mohammad’s son, Shoaib, made an interesting observation hinting that New Zealand all-rounder Daryl Mitchell had alluded to some problem with the floodlight at the Gaddafi stadium before Rachin was injured.
“Most certainly. In fact, even before the whole Rachin Rabindra incident occurred, I noticed that even Daryl Mitchell was having trouble seeing the ball while he fielded. The moment he took the catch, I noticed that his expressions indicated he couldn’t quite see the ball properly,” he said.
“So if he too faced the same problem, then there is something wrong. The deciding point of placement of the floodlights is a technical aspect. Rachin was stationed at deep square leg and the light was right before him. Well, that is not usually where floodlights are situated in a stadium. There is some glare that makes it hard for the players to pick up the ball.”
