When an India-West Indies ODI was delayed because of a strange reason
In today’s times, the facilities and luxuries available to international cricketers are immense. Be it with respect to gym facilities or elaborate travel arrangements, they are well covered. But that was not the case always. A couple of decades back, things were not as well developed and well managed. While it may seem that such things may never have directly affected the game being played, there is an interesting incident from 1994, where missing luggage caused a delay in a match, which even led to shortening of overs!
In 1994, India and West Indies were scheduled to play an ODI at Visakhapatnam. It was the 3rd ODI of a closely contested series. While the cricket was expected to be top-notch, there was an unexpected twist. West Indies team’s luggage, which was supposed to reach the desired venue, Visakhapatnam, got routed to Madras instead. It was a horrible mix up. It was an unprecedented and chaotic situation. The designated officials got to it and managed to sort out the botch up.
However, by the time the problem was sorted, there was time for only 44 over per side a game. And so, remarkably, due to misplaced luggage, 6 overs of an ODI game were cropped off. It may invoke a few laughs today, but was quite an embarrassing situation back then.
The delay, however, did not deter the Indian batsman. They played aggressive cricket right through the innings. Navjot Singh Sidhu’s brilliant 114* of just 102 balls, propelled India to a formidable total of 260 in 44 overs. With 6 overs already being eaten away, West Indies docked another over, due to slow overrate. They now needed to get the target in 43 overs. The mistake cost them heavily as they eventually lost the game by a margin of 4 runs, despite a heroic 74 from Carl Hooper off just 47 balls. Thus, a match which started amidst chaos and uncertainty ended with brilliant cricket displayed by both the teams.
