CPL nullifies all statements about unfair treatment with Knight Riders at eliminator match

After facing the continuous backlashes for the Eliminator match of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) 2024 between Trinbago Knight Riders and Barbados Royals, the management of CPL released a massive statement, shedding light on the situation caused due to the floodlight towers.

Notably, the eliminator match was held at the Guyana National Stadium on October 1, 2024. The floodlight failure interrupted the match due to which the result fall into the favour for the Royals on the basis of DLS method.

Following the game, CPL fans from all over the world started demeaning and targeting the management because of this unexpected technical glitch and backlashed them for their irresponsible behaviour.

Therefore, the CPL team shared the statement, keeping in their views stating that 19.1 over of the Knight Riders innings were completed when the interruption occurred. They stated that the in-field umpires, Deighton Butler and Nigel Duguid, were asked about the playing situation to which, they called it unsafe for the players.

The statement further continued stating that both the teams were given an opportunity to continue playing the game in the reduced lighting. They added that the Barbados Royals were willing to continue the game, but the Trinbago Knight Riders did not want to carry on playing in the conditions which the umpires had decided to be unsafe.

They further mentioned that the power was later restored to the third floodlight tower at around 22:51 and after making allowance for lamps to achieve maximum brightness. Therefore, the officials took a decision to re-start the game in order to ensure that a result could be taken on the field of play.

The CPL team asserted that they decided to determine the result of the Eliminator match on the basis of the DLS method. It is an ICC approved calculator which is used at the innings break of every game and is also universally accepted method to determine revised targets in a game which is interrupted due to some or other reasons.

Moreover, the Cricket West Indies senior match referee, Reon King who was in charge of the Playing Control team on the night shed light on the playing conditions. He stated that the CPL playing conditions allow for 1-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 by rain.

He called the safety of the players their utmost priority and stated that they also worked and tried hard to see any outcome that could be achieved one way or another on the field of play to find out the result. He added that this was their entire focus during the Eliminator match as well held between Riders and Royals.