The West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell who plays for Trinbago Knight Riders shared his thoughts on the lighting issue during the Eliminator match against Barbados Royals in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) 2024. He felt he was robbed and called the entire situation a f***ry.
The Eliminator match was filled with controversy when a floodlight failure at Providence Stadium in Guyana delayed the game for two hours. As a result the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method was used to set a new target.
Before the lights went out, the Trinbago Knight Riders had a strong batting performance, scoring 168-3 in 19.1 overs. Captain Nicholas Pooran was leading the charge with an impressive 91 runs off 60 balls, while Andre Russell contributed 20 runs off 18 balls.
After the delay, Barbados Royals were given a target of 60 runs to chase in just five overs. Although they lost Quinton de Kock early, David Miller played exceptionally well, scoring 50 runs off 17 balls, guiding his team to victory with four balls to spare.
What caught many by surprise was that the cut-off time for the five-over game was 10:52 pm local time, yet the game was not resumed until 11:01 pm. This raised questions about following the rules.
Had the match been abandoned the Trinbago Knight Riders would have automatically advanced to Qualifier 2 due to having more points than the Barbados Royals in the league standings.
“I feel robbed,” Andre Russell expressed his frustration. He didn’t usually voice his opinions online but felt this situation was unfair. On his Instagram, he expressed his frustration.
Trinbago Knight Riders captain Kieron Pollard also commented on the game’s outcome emphasizing that they were eager to play by the rules when the lights were on.
