Australia’s Cricket World Cup clash with Sri Lanka paused as stadium’s signage comes crashing down
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Australia’s Cricket World Cup clash with Sri Lanka on Monday night was briefly put on hold when a large section of hoarding fell from the top of Ekana Cricket Stadium.
Spectators scattered as the signage came crashing down and landed on the seats of one of the grandstands late in the first innings of the match.
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Play had to be stopped while fans were ushered away from the hazard.
Heavy winds are believed to have been the problem. An unwelcome dust storm also swept across the ground during the first innings.
While the signage itself appeared relatively harmless, the metal frames holding them up came down with it, and posed a serious safety hazard.
Nobody was injured during the incident, but the players were left stunned.
“I’ve never been a part of that,” player-of-the-match Adam Zampa said of it after the game.
“Never seen anything like that. That metal pole coming down could have seriously hurt someone.”
The signage crashed into the stadium’s seats. Credit: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images
Play resumed five minutes after it happened, but the start of Australia’s run chase was delayed by 21 minutes due to safety concerns.
“We’re worried about the wind and the damage it can do from a spectator’s point of view as much as anything else,” New Zealand great Ian Smith said in commentary.
“You can see it’s not just the hoardings themselves, it’s the scaffold and the structures that have been holding them together.
“Some of them have blown down as well and that has presented quite a dangerous element to some of the spectators in the grandstand.”
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Smith agreed with the decision to put play on hold.
“I think they’re fully justified in holding off until we can get a bit of a break in the weather,” he went on.
“It absolutely disintegrated in the wind, so we have a few questions to answer before we get on with Australia’s reply.”
When play did finally resume in the second innings, fans were directed away from the lower parts of the stand.
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Australia recovered from a shaky start to the match to win by five wickets, with 14.4 overs to spare.
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