The tall claims of the Odisha government that the State has world-class sports infrastructure and become the international sports hub, proved hollow after a power outage during an international football match between India and Lebanon at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Thursday.
During the halftime of the match between India and Lebanon when the players were proceeding towards their dressing rooms power went out. For half-an-hour, dressing rooms, VVIP rooms, media centre, and the corridor plunged into darkness.
With no choice left, the international players had to take rest on the field itself.
The match resumed after the power came back. But then again, while the match was in progress, one of the floodlight towers went out. Though the lights came back after 5-6 minutes, by then the erratic power supply had already done the damage, doing a disservice to the state’s reputation of being a sports hub.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has held the BJD-led government responsible for the fiasco.
“President Droupadi Murmu had to face power outage in her own state. But yesterday’s incident wherein the players had to take rest on the field and have food in the dark, has hurt us. Our question is when the government will rectify itself,” said BJP state general secretary, Lekhashree Samantasinghar.
At the same time, the Kalinga Stadium in-charge Bijayananda Nayak ascribed the incident to a technical fault.
“I don’t know what happened on that day. But technical fault can’t be avoided,” said Nayak.
The Inter-Continental Cup-2023 was inaugurated by none other than Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. These days, the Kalinga Stadium is also hosting Inter-State Senior Athletic Championships wherein over 750 national level athletes, sportspersons from Srilanka and Maldives, and officials are participating.
While the government’s apparent motive for organizing these two big tournaments simultaneously was to earn applause, the power outage put paid to it.
Last year too, all four floodlight towers went off for around 15 minutes during an Indian Super League match between Odisha FC and Chennaiyian FC.
The sportspersons and critics shared a consensus that before organizing a world-level sport event, the infrastructure should be upgraded accordingly.
“If we are not able to have a backup plan for these games, what will be the situation when we host world cup-like events? These small incidents are making a dent in the organizing capacity of Odisha," observed Jayadeb Mohapatra, football coach.
Expressing his displeasure, sports critic K Ravi said, “Such interruptions during internal level matches are definitely bringing disrepute to the Kalinga Stadium. The government should take steps to avoid such occurrences in future and if anyone is found responsible for such things, action should be taken against them.”