"Hit Wrong Switch": Lyon's Request Led To Floodlight Failure In Adelaide

A strange incident took place on the opening day of the pink-ball Test between India and Australia at the Adelaide Oval earlier this month. The floodlights at the venue went off twice in the 18th over of Australia’s first innings. Later, Cricket Australia issued a statement acknowledging the disruption and said that it happened due to a “brief internal switching issue”. The detailed reason behind the disturbance has now come to the fore. It was Nathan Lyon’s request that created the chaos.

Former cricketer and Australian media personality James Brayshaw talked to Lyon about the incident on Day 1 of India vs Australia 3rd Test.

Brayshaw said to Lyon on Seven’s coverage, as quoted by Fox Cricket: “It led back to me that the lights went off twice and you were the reason for that because you’re the nightwatchman and you wanted to go out and have a hit.

“So you said to the bloke, ‘Put the lights on in the nets so I can have a hit’, and he hit the wrong button twice and turned the whole ground lights off.”

Lyon then revealed that the incident involved him and Australian assistant coach Andre Borovec and a security guard.

“I couldn’t believe that. I was actually with our assistant coach ‘Boro’, sitting out there in the dark and the security guard asked us, and we said, ‘If you could put the lights on that’d be great, I need all the help I can get’. Then next minute it went off,” said Lyon.

“I literally said to Boro, ‘I reckon he’s hit the wrong switch’. We sat out in the dark there for about 15 minutes waiting to have a hit. I’ll take that one, getting blamed for someone not knowing how to turn the lights on,” he added.

Talking about the game, Australia registered a 10-wicket win to level the five-match series 1-1.