Power failure leaves PCB in the dark

The Pakistan board will conduct a thorough inquiry over the sudden failure of one of the six transformers at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, which disrupted over an hour's play in the third one-dayer between Pakistan and the West Indies.

Play remained suspended for 66 minutes as the floodlights went off following the failure of the transformer at about 1.15 pm. The murky conditions had forced the umpires to ask for the floodlights to be switched on at 12.15 pm but the sudden breakdown of power stopped play during the 47th over of the West Indies innings.

The crisis, and the fact that President Pervez Musharraf was expected to arrive, prompted the PCB officials to rush to the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) for help. WAPDA then installed its emergency generator which ensured the resumption of play at about 2:30 pm.

It was reported that the matter was going to be investigated in a meeting, to be chaired by the board's chairman Dr Nasim Ashraf on Monday. All the concerned parties including Nespak and a multi-national electric company which installed the floodlights in 1995 were set to attend the meeting.

The PCB did issue a press statement later which said: "The floodlighting system of the Gaddafi Stadium has six poles each with its own transformers. The lights were operational during the practice sessions and till 1.15 pm on the match day. At 1.16 pm, transformer No. 3 developed an internal fault and disrupted the power supply ring connecting to all six transformers. After detecting the fault, the faulty transformer was isolated from the main ring and supply to tower No.3 was restored through generator. Main supply was restored at 3.45 pm and the play resumed at 4.15 pm."

President Musharraf finally arrived at 4.30 pm after confirming that the match had resumed.