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Floodlights under scanner as Kanpur makes IPL debut with GL-KKR match

Will a problem with the floodlights mar Kanpur’s IPL debut?

Kanpur is the latest second-tier Indian city to be hosting the IPL, joining the likes of Rajkot and Raipur with Thursday’s crucial encounter between Gujarat Lions and Kolkata Knight Riders. The league table is under close scrutiny with the last few games of the league stage remaining. Four teams, including both of Thursday’s participants, are tied on 14 points, and at least one of these teams will miss out on progressing to the playoffs. However, there is another aspect of the game subject to scrutiny in the lead up to this match – the floodlights at Green Park, put to its first IPL test.

There is an issue with the amount of illumination provided by the lights at the Kanpur stadium, which is one of the reasons why more IPL games were not hosted at this ground. GL will be playing their last two home games in this city.

The ideal degree of illumination for a day-night match is 2000 lux. The lights produced by the four tall towers at Kanpur, each fitted with 84 illuminators, does not produce this amount. Reports vary as to how much light will be produced, but everyone agrees it will be interesting to see the effect of this on the match – especially on outfield fielders.

Indian Express quotes one of the players involved in the match to be saying, “The effect of the lights near the centre should be fine but if you are fielding at long-on or for that matter near any boundary the light might not be sufficient. It will be tough for fielders, especially when it comes to taking high catches.

The root of this problem is in administrative short-sightedness. Two years ago, the Green Park stadium was rebuilt to accommodate a VVIP box, but it went unnoticed for a while that this box was in the middle of one of the floodlights and the playing arena. Additional lights have now been fitted on the roof of the stands to remedy this problem, but the doubts remain.

However, ESPN Cricinfo and Times of India report that the shortage of light is not the problem, but that an excess of it will be. As a result of the additional lights, fielders can be blinded, as this fear goes.

Few hours remain till it is answered if the clarity on TV screens remains for this match, whether batsmen see the ball well enough in the second innings, and whether outfield fielders are inconvenienced.

Floodlights have not been the only source of problem in Kanpur’s quest of hosting the IPL though. A lack of five-star hotels has forced Mumbai Indians to stay at Lucknow and practise there till the KKR team departs. Landmark, the only hotel in the city IPL teams are going for, reportedly also had a confusion while booking rooms for Shah Rukh Khan, the KKR co-owner.

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