Days before match, another embarrassment rocks Eden

Two days before Eden Gardens is put to test again, and at a time when the memory of floodlight fiasco is still fresh, the organisers of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in Kolkata got entangled in a more embarrassing episode on Sunday.

In an incident that will surely leave Shah Rukh Khan & Co fuming, a chunky portion of the power cable that feeds power to the four towering floodlights went missing and was eventually reported stolen.

The Cricket Association of Bengal’s internal security guards first spotted the theft of a 300-metre portion of the cord — the section that feeds the power generator for Eden’s floodlights —at 1 am on Sunday.

The Prasun Mukherjee-led CAB administration got down to business immediately, looking to hush up the chapter, and lost no time in getting the interrupted power supply repaired. The CAB, backed by the Kolkata IPL franchisee, Red Chillies Entertainment, has filed a complaint with the Maidan police station.

What could make this case snowball into a much bigger controversy are CAB president Prasun Mukherjee’s fears that it could be a sabotage, or an “insider’s job”, as the former Kolkata Police Commissioner puts it.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Mukherjee said: “We found out that cords had been stolen from two specific locations inside the stadium. Besides the power cord, a large portion of telephone cable has been stolen. This could have been done only by people with specific knowledge of Eden’s wiring system. It’s not a case of stray theft. Someone or some people have been trying to spoil our efforts before Tuesday’s match.”

Mukherjee assured that there would be additional security at the CAB from now, till the IPL carnival gets over.

“The damage has been repaired, and the power supply for Tuesday’s match will not be affected,” the former police chief said.

The episode has further sullied the image of the CAB and the Kolkata Police in the backdrop of last Sunday’s drama at the Eden Gardens when its floodlights went off midway into the IPL match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Hyderabad Deccan Chargers.

Such damaging was the startling development that even Kolkata Police Commissioner Gautam Mohan Chakrabarti’s official announcement of giving Eden the go-ahead for Tuesday’s match was pushed into the background.

Speaking to mediapersons in the evening after a final

inspection of the arrangements at Eden, the city police chief said: “I don’t understand how a theft like this could have happened. We don’t know what actually happened, but are surely going to look into it.