BCCI seeks de-briefing on India - West Indies washout

There was a critical question in the minds of cricket fans and pundits when Carlos Brathwaite was handed over the winner’s trophy by BCCI president Anurag Thakur at the Central Broward regional Park Stadium, Lauderhill. It was – what would have happened if the game had not been delayed due to the “unavoidable technical problem?”

The 2nd T20I between India and West Indies was washed out due to rains costing the Men in Blue the opportunity to level the series. There were two particular reasons behind India’s loss – technical snag and rains.

While the rains were inevitable, the 40 minutes delay at the start has made many think that if the start of the match had not been delayed India would have probably won the game as they could have had more overs to bat before rains came down – at least the minimum of five overs which were required to conclude the game with a result using D/L method.

Chasing 144, India were 15 for no loss at the end of the first over. The DL par score was 27 at the end of five overs if India had not lost a wicket. This meant that only 13 more runs were needed in the remaining four overs with no loss of wickets. This would have handed the game and squared the two-match series.

The BCCI has now decided to look into the matter and is reportedly for a debriefing session.

“It is a practice in the BCCI that every match gets reviewed. In the IPL every single game is revisited and this issue will be looked into as well. We will insist on de-briefing from everyone concerned,” said a member in the position of authority.

Since Sunday night, the BCCI members have been bombarded with questions about the delayed start but the officials were not immediately available for comment. It is learnt that the problem was with a satellite equipment.

Because of its malfunctioning, the up-linking of the feed could not happen. It needed 40 minutes for the equipment to be rectified. Generally, the match gets started at the scheduled time but on this occasion it was decided to delay the start. Finally, BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke had reacted to the question.

“We knew the importance of this match for India. You can’t blame us for rain,” said the BCCI secretary without going into the details. We may hear more about it later.

None from the production and broadcasting houses could be reached for a comment. A query was mailed to atop Sunset and Vine executive but he did not reply to the mail.