Assam Cricket Association ensuring no power outage during India vs Sri Lanka ODI

The Assam Cricket Association(ACA) is going the extra mile to ensure that there is no power outage when India will play Sri Lanka at its grounds here next week, officials said.

The ACA stadium will host the first ODI of a three-match series between the two countries on January 10, officials said.

The Association has enlisted the help of an NGO to ensure that there is no presence of snake in the field like in the T20 match between India and South Africa in October last year, which was halted by a partial power outage. Speaking about the steps taken by the ACA to prevent any problem with lights, its president Taranga Gogoi said, “There was some technical problem with one of the floodlights tower in the India-SA match. We have already initiated the work to use LED bulbs for all the floodlights.

But as installing new bulbs will take about a month and there is not enough time, the existing floodlights will be used for the January 10 match. All the wiring and other technical aspects of the floodlight towers as well as entire the stadium are being thoroughly checked to ensure no repeat of the glitch witnessed during the India-SA match, he said.

The stadium had plunged into partial darkness during the second innings of the India-SA match on October 2 last year when one of the four floodlight towers went off halting play for 18 minutes.

The four floodlight towers have dedicated 500 KV diesel generator sets each, while one generator set of similar capacity has been kept on stand-by, he said.

The stadium lighting is also being thoroughly checked and help of experts has been taken to ensure that no technical problems arise, the ACA president added.

Asked if any measure has been taken to ensure that snakes do not create problems for those present in the field, Gogoi said that the help of an NGO that works with snakes has been taken. It has sprayed chemicals and has taken other measures to ensure that there is no recurrence.

“Not just the field, we are taking these steps to control the presence of reptiles across the stadium, including in the stands,” he added.

A snake had come out of a small pit in the field while the home team was batting in the first half of the T20 match stopping play for about five minutes till the groundsmen captured it.

Gogoi said other infrastructure had been spruced up for the October match and barring a few improvements and repairs the rest are in good shape.

Asked about the sale of tickets, he said out of 20,000 available online 10,000 have been sold so far. Sales are expected to catch up as THE match day approaches.

"Another 10,000 tickets have been sent to the district associations and we expect sale of 7,000-8,000 by them. The remaining tickets are expected to be sold before January 10," he added.

About 8,000 passes will be provided as complimentary tickets to former players, cricket associations of other northeastern states and guests, the ACA president added.