The Cricket World Cup is in full swing and the entire nation is gripped with fervour. We’r having matches everyday and the cricket crazy public is lapping it up.
Nearly 40 out of the 50 matches will be day-night affairs. Thousands of watts of electricity is used for these day night matches which can easily be diverted for better usage. Most cities in India still have power shedding everyday. I understand that cricket is a huge revenue generating business today. But we need to be realistic and think about the bigger picture.
Some time back there was a report in the papers which said that Dhaka the capital of Bangladesh faced a blackout because a day night match was being played at the Shere Bangla stadium! Further factories in Bangladesh were asked to shut down to prevent power cuts during big matches! I mean is the game more important than the people?
I can understand a big match being played under lights. But matches like Canada v/s Netherlands? Do we really need such matches under flood lights? Who’s really gonna watch those matches? I’m sure even people in Canada and Netherlands don’t spend their entire day watching these matches!
Also why do we need matches played on the weekends to be day nighters? Can’t we have at least those matches in the day?
Some people argue that the days are too hot to play cricket. But test cricket is played during the day and that too for 5 days in a row! So surely we can’t complaint that playing in the day is not possible.
We'll have the IPL 3 starting next month which means another 74 day-night matches! I think one solution could be that the stadiums which host day night matches should install solar panels and generate their own electricity. The cash rich BCC can surely afford that and contribute to the society.
