Kolkata: Notorious for its history of power blackouts in the past, the Vivekananda Yuva Bharati Krirangan once again disappointed fans and players on Friday as darkness descended suddenly on the stadium during Indian Super League match between Atletico de Kolkata and Chennaiyin FC here.
In the 37th minute of the match, some of the floodlights in the northern side suddenly went off.
Darkness engulfed the stadium as the players were left confused and the match stopped, embarrassing the organisers.
After an interruption of 11 minutes, the lights started flickering one by one and the game resumed.
Those present at the packed stadium included Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan, his son and Chennaiyin FC owner Abhishek, actress Deepika Padukone and Shoaib Akhtar.
The stadium is notorious for its power cuts in the past as India’s FIFA World Cup qualifier against Japan in 2004 was hit badly by a load shedding.
Play at the then 120,000 capacity stadium had to be suspended for 25 minutes on September 8, 2004, after rats snapped some cables at a West Bengal State Electricity Board sub-station in the stadium.
In September 2011, after Argentina vs Venezuela FIFA international friendly match, the latter’s coach Cesar Farias was addressing the media when the lights had gone off.
The coach soon walked out of the media conference after the total blackout, a common sight with about a dozen similar incidents in the past at the jinxed stadium, which is owned by the state government.
VYBK saw a similar power cut during a Santosh Trophy match between Tamil Nadu and Bengal on August 4, 2010 after another one — a Calcutta football league decider between Chirag United and Mohun Bagan in May, 2010. (PTI)
