On June 7, 1975, the World Cup limited Overs
Tournament for men was inaugurated.
India played in the very first match and were thrashed in the hands of
England – some may be surprised to know that the Inaugural WC for women was
played 2 years earlier… Matches have been stopped /
abandoned due to host of reasons right from weather, rain, animal entry, crowd behaviour, stadium collapse, ground
being dug up, assassination of political leader elsewhere and more… some are
weird too !!!
It was tempting to
think Serbia's Euro 2016 qualifier against Albania - the latter's first visit
to Belgrade since 1967 - was going to conclude without incident. The match in
Belgrade was stopped after 41 minutes when a drone sparked a brawl. The game, with no away fans permitted, was
interrupted when a flag depicting so-called Greater Albania, an area covering
all parts of the Balkans where ethnic Albanians live, was flown over the
terraces and pitch by what appeared to be a remote controlled mini drone near
the end of the first half.
At Hambantota in
Nov 2013, rain proved not to be the tropical monsoon's only disciple in its
ongoing war against cricket in Sri Lanka, as another meteorological phenomenon stopped play and
prompted the players' exit. Dark clouds had gathered over the venue before the
match had begun, but around the 20th over, lightning began to strike the forest
to the east, about 1.5km from the venue. Spotting a particularly menacing fork,
the umpires conferred and led the players off the field, citing concern for
their safety. Well, that sounds aright,
but who will care for the groundsmen and others on the field – is their lives
any less important !!!
Lightning
is one of the most beautiful displays in nature. It is also
one of the most deadly natural phenomena known to man. Lightning is the
transient passage of electrical current between a cloud and either the surface
of the earth, or another cloud, etc. With bolt temperatures hotter than the
surface of the sun and shockwaves beaming out in all directions, lightning is a
lesson in physical science and humility.Beyond its
powerful beauty, it can cause havoc killing people and destroying property.
Lightning is a
sudden electrostatic discharge during an electrical storm between electrically
charged regions of a cloud (called intra-cloud lightning or IC), between that
cloud and another cloud (CC lightning), or between a cloud and the ground (CG
lightning). The charged regions in the atmosphere temporarily equalize
themselves through this discharge referred to as a strike if it hits an object
on the ground. Although lightning is always accompanied by the sound of
thunder, distant lightning may be seen but be too far away for the thunder to
be heard.
There
are places where lightning strikes regularly - Africa is the lightning capital
of the world, according to map that tracked every bolt of lightning to hit the earth for 18
years. A Nasa map has revealed which
parts of the world experience the most flashes of lightning ever year. According to the satellite observations,
lightning occurs more often over land than it does over oceans; lightning seems
to happen more often closer to the equator, owing to the hotter temperatures
.... Democratic Republic of Congo and Lake Maracaibo in northwestern Venezuela
experienced the most.
For
an Insurer, Lightning is a peril and cause loss or damage. In India, the
Standard Fire & Special Perils policy ~ a named Perils policy has
‘lightning’ included in the listed perils and hence loss or damage caused by lightning is indemnifiable.Today’s
the Hindu reports that - lightning
struck a palm tree next to the club room abutting the ground at Perecharla,
Andhra. The friendly match between women teams of
Andhra and Tripura was abandoned.
Seethapathi,
member of ACA, who was present at the ground said, ``It started raining at 1.50
p.m. and the umpires called off the play. We heard a loud and thundering sound
that left the players, umpires and the selectors, who were on the first floor
of the building, scurrying for cover.After some time, we realised that the
lightning struck a palm tree just next the building and we could see the tree
was in flames. We all came rushing out of the building and the women players
ran to the buses.’’ According to eyewitnesses, the fire raged for about 30
minutes even in pouring rain.
Parts of the
district witnessed a heavy downpour since Sunday afternoon. On Saturday,
lightening claimed three lives in Sattenapallimandal. Some reports indicate that around 20 people
were killed after lightning struck different parts of Andhra Pradesh as heavy
rain lashed the state of Sunday.The incidents occurred in Krishna, Guntur, East
Godavari, Prakasam and Nellore districts.Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu
announced ex-gratia of Rs. 4 lakh to each of the victim killed in lightning.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
7th
Sept. 2015.
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