Cricket Australia CEO Apologizes For 'Catastrophic Power Failure' At The Gabba

Cricket Australia CEO Nick Hockley on Saturday apologised for the power failure during day four of the first Ashes Test at The Gabba cutting television broadcast for some time.

During the morning session on day four, a power outage at the stadium meant TV broadcast went down mid-way in the session, leaving Fox Sports, Seven Network and TV stations around the world with no cricketing action to show.

Channel 7 commentator, England's Alison Mitchell reported the sudden disappearance of the TV live feed as a 'catastrophic power failure'. Though Seven and Fox tried to show the match with some additional cameras showing some view of the ground, that was also interrupted as people were dependent on ABC radio commentary for following the proceedings. Apart from TV, the DRS was also unavailable for use. After 25 minutes, the power supply was restored and TV coverage was back to normal.

Hockley, while speaking to ABC Radio, apologised for the power disruption in the match. "I was getting live updates every minute. I just want to apologise to all the fans out there. One of the generators in the outside broadcast compound (went down). I just want to say thank you to everyone working extremely hard to get that backup. Again, I can only just say we are sorry to all the fans."

Previously, the first Ashes Test had been struggling with cricket technology like the third umpire calling front-foot no-balls and snicko unavailable as part of the DRS technology. The two elements were unavailable for the Ashes opener due to COVID-19 restrictions by the Queensland government resulting in very less broadcast production staff at the stadium.

With Australia taking a 1-0 lead in the five-match series, one can expect a full DRS suite to be available for the second Test, a day-night affair at Adelaide Oval starting from December 16.