CPL: At 20:58 on Tuesday 1 October, during the Eliminator match between the Barbados Royals and the Trinbago Knight Riders, there was a loss of power to all three floodlight towers on the eastern side of the Guyana National Stadium, Providence, causing an interruption in play. At the time of the interruption, 19.1 overs of the Knight Riders innings had been completed. Within half an hour, two of the three towers were functioning. In the opinion of the on-field field umpires, Deighton Butler and Nigel Duguid the lighting level made it unsafe for play to continue.
Nevertheless, given the importance of the game, both teams were offered the opportunity to continue playing in the reduced lighting. While the Barbados Royals were willing to continue, the Trinbago Knight Riders, as was their right, did not want to carry on playing in conditions which the umpires had decided were unsafe.
Initially, a cut-off time of 22:52 for the start of a minimum 5 of innings, which is required to constitute a game, was communicated to broadcast. This was subsequently revised to 23:01 to account for the time allowed for the interval between innings which had not been initially included.
Eventually, power was restored to the third floodlight tower at 22:51 and, after making an allowance for enough time for the lamps to achieve maximum brightness, the match officials made the decision to re-start the game at 23:01, ensuring that a result could be achieved on the field of play. The ICC approved DLS calculator, which is utilized at the innings break of every CPL game, and which is the universally accepted method used to determine revised targets in an interrupted game was applied, and a target of 60 from the 5 overs was generated.
Reon King, CWI senior Match Referee, who was in charge of the Playing Control Team on the night, said: “The Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League playing conditions allow for one hour extra time to be added to a game before overs are lost, and a failure of floodlights is treated in exactly the way as an interruption for rain. The priority for the match officials team is always for the safety of players, but they also work to try and see if the outcome of a game, one way or another, can be achieved on the field of play. This was the focus applied during the Eliminator match.”