00:00Many fans are disappointed following the manner in which TKR exited the
00:03Republic Bank CPL after losing their eliminator to Barbados Royals at the
00:07Providence Stadium. When TKR were 168 for 3 in the final over, the floodlights
00:13were down and that caused a two-hour delay which allowed the Royals to
00:17successfully chase down 60 in five overs under the DLS method. While fans are
00:22saying it was sabotage, cricket analyst Fazir Mohammed begs to differ.
00:27I suppose at the end of the day, there's nothing that will satisfy the die-hard TKR fan,
00:33whatever the explanation is. And yes, there will be a lot of conspiracy
00:36theories, was this well planned, was this coordinated, the timing of it, the timing
00:41of the power coming back on just before the cutoff time. So yes, there's ample
00:46room for all sorts of conspiracy theories and indeed, I mean we have to be
00:50honest enough and say for a lot of TKR fans, they have never lost a match in
00:54their entire history. They either win or sell because that is sadly the attitude
00:59of a lot of people which is very unfortunate. Mohammed is aware this is
01:02going to be a talking point for a while. As such, he wants the Caribbean Premier
01:07League to provide some sort of explanation to the media and public
01:10following the outcome. I think it's important for CPL to try to diffuse some
01:16of that by at least giving a chronology of what happened. The thing is that we've
01:21got an explanation from the Guyana Power Company, but again, that could be seen
01:26as the Guyanese authorities looking after their own and their own interests
01:30because they wouldn't want to play TKR. So yes, there's all sorts of conspiracy
01:34theories, but I think it's important that at least some sort of statement be
01:38made. But as I said before, it's not going to appease the die-hard TKR fans
01:43or indeed many of the TKR players who are on social media saying all sorts of
01:47things, at least one of them we know quite well. After a certain cut-off time
01:51was given for the match, play did start afterwards, the new time being 11.01pm.
01:56So was Mohammed surprised by that? Nothing really surprises me when we're
02:01talking about cricket or we're talking about sport for that matter. We've often
02:05seen it happen and not just in cricket but in other sports, in other
02:10situations where the rules are tweaked slightly. Not saying cheating, but they're
02:15tweaked slightly to facilitate a game being played, to facilitate a result. There are
02:19lots of competing interests, there are economic interests, there are television
02:22rights interests, there are broadcasters interests, there's home field
02:26advantage. There are so many things tied into it. Questions of having a reserve
02:31day in future for playoffs have come up as a result. Mohammed feels that should
02:35be left up to the authorities to decide. Vinod Nawani, T6 Sport.
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