The Pakistan Cricket Board found itself in soup after Rachin Ravindra injured himself in the field during the 1st ODI of the tri-series between New Zealand and hosts Pakistan. Going for a catch, Rachin couldn’t spot the ball, which struck him flush on his head, causing heavy bleeding. With blood dripping profusely from his forehead, Rachin had to leave the ground, his face covered with a white towel.
However, the bigger picture was how the PCB copped flak for the incident, with fans holding the board and the floodlights of Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium responsible for the New Zealand all-rounder’s accident. The stadium was unveiled just a day before, to much fanfare among the country’s cricket fans. Still, some users even demanded that the Champions Trophy 2025 be removed from Pakistan entirely due to a lack of basic necessities.
Reacting strongly to this report, the Pakistan community as a whole has hit back, with former captain Salman Butt putting holding Rachin accountable for his gruesome injury. Despite New Zealand Cricket’s official update that the all-rounder has suffered a laceration on his forehead, which required stitches and will continue to be monitored, Butt says Rachin failed to read the ball and paid the price.
“There’s no point trying to make people understand when they don’t want to. It’s irrelevant. These are some of the latest LED lights that have been installed, so these are fine. When New Zealand players hit sixes off deliveries bowled at close to 150 kph, were the lights not working then? A player who was standing 70 meters away failed to take the catch because of his misjudgement. He is a fine fielder, but perhaps his leg slipped, and he got hurt,” he said on a local news channel.
Another Pakistan news anchor echoed Butt’s sentiments. A day after the whole fiasco, the 2nd ODI between India and England at Cuttack’s Barabati Stadium witnessed a halt of almost 30 minutes after one of the floodlights malfunctioned. Like PCB, the BCCI, too, faced public backlash, and the issue escalated to the extent that the Odisha Cricket Association received an NOC from the Odisha State Council, asking for an explanation. The anchor, defiant in his stance, stated that ‘such things happen’, but the noise suggesting stripping Pakistan of Champions Trophy rights makes no sense.
“Like some of the prior campaigns that stated Pakistan cannot host a tournament as big as the Champions Trophy because the stadiums are not ready, I want to ask the same people, ‘What do you have to say about what happened in Barabati Stadium? That is an established stadium.’ So, I want to say that these things happen. These are not big issues. Just because Rachin was hit in the face doesn’t mean that PCB is to be blamed for it,” he said.
Contrasting takes
On the contrary, another former Pakistan cricketer, Tanvir Ahmed, lashed out at the PCB, calling it incapable of maintaining stadiums. “We don’t even have the money. Whatever is done to maintain the stadiums comes from state associations.”
Meanwhile, Shoaib Mohammad, son of the great Hanif Mohammad, felt something was up with the lights. “Most definitely. In fact, before the whole Rachin Ravindra incident, I noticed that even Daryl Mitchell had some trouble spotting the ball when he fielding. The moment he took the catch, at a normal height, I noticed that his expressions indicated that he couldn’t quite see the ball properly,” he said.
“So if he too faced the same problem, something is wrong. The placement of the floodlights is a technical aspect. Rachin was standing at deep square leg, and the light was right before him. Now, that is not usually where floodlights are erected in a stadium. There is some glare due to which the ball is getting lost in the players’ vision.”
Mitchell had taken the catch to dismiss Salman Agha.
