'Cuttack Barabati Stadium incapable of hosting international matches;' floodlight issue riles up cricket fans

The India-England ODI at Barabati Stadium in Cuttack n Sunday ended in a decisive victory for the Rohit Sharma-led team but also opened a can of worms for one of the oldest cricket venues in India.

Several management issues marred the event, raising concerns about the venue's capability to host future international matches. A significant disruption after a floodlight failure forced play to be halted for 25 minutes in the second innings was the breaking point for many.

During the seventh over of the second innings of the game, with Rohit Sharma on 29 and Shubman Gill on 17, the floodlights started to flicker before completely blacking out. Upset players, including the India skipper, stepped off the field as OCA officials tried to fix the issue.

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In the meantime, the glitch caught international attention and even attracted trolls from Pakistan who took a dig at the stadium’s infrastructure. Subsequently, Indian cricket fans rose up in anger and lashed out at the OCA and the BCCI for the poor state of affairs on social media sites, even demanding that international matches be completely stopped in this venue.

“Hey BCCI can you stop giving big-ticket matches to smaller cities and stadiums to avoid such embarrassment,” said one user on X (formerly Twitter). Another commented, “Please do not give matches to Cuttack it clearly does not have the infrastructure.”

Others tried to point out that the stadium was old and ageing but said that this was no excuse for the global stage embarrassment. “People from England are watching from the stands and this is your preparations,” another lashed out at BCCI.

Incidentally, another inconvenient situation followed soon after the floodlights were fixed when Rohit Sharma lashed out at the DJ for playing music.

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Meanwhile, the Odisha government has demanded an explanation from the OCA, blaming a generator failure for the floodlight issue. The string of incidents has cast doubt on Barabati Stadium's ability to host international matches, dealing a blow to Odia cricket fans.