Alarm bells sounded after Monday's cricket World Cup practice match at the SCG, but they were ringing long before the end for the West Indies, as they suffered a humiliating nine-wicket loss to England.
A few minutes after the game, an evacuation alert was sounded and the remainder of the small crowd were ushered out of the grandstands, with officials not immediately aware of why the alert went off.
Initial suggestions were that it was an overheating generator.
Officials said the alarm had been tripped accidentally and they had to wait for local fire fighters to turn it off.
England seamer Chris Woakes took 5-19 from 7.3 overs, as West Indies were dismissed for 122 off just 29.3 overs after their captain Jason Holder elected to bat first.
England made light work of the chase, reaching their modest target in just 22.5 overs.
West Indies were dismissed so quickly, England batted for 14 overs before the scheduled innings break.
They raced to 1-80 in that time, with opener Moeen Ali smashing 46 off 43 balls and striking nine boundaries, most of them through the offside.
Ian Bell (35no) and James Taylor (25no) completed the chase in comfortable fashion.
Great West Indies teams won the first two World Cups in 1975 and 1979, but the current combination looked a second tier side on Monday.
It was probably just as well for the West Indies that England rested their frontline quicks James Anderson and Stuart Broad.
Conditions were almost tailor made for England's seamers, who probably couldn't believe their luck and could have been forgiven for thinking they were back home.
Woakes exploited a green-tinged pitch and cloudy overhead conditions which had the floodlights flicker into use around 4pm local time.
He had Chris Gayle and Darren Bravo caught behind for first ball ducks off the third and fourth deliveries of the innings to reduce the West Indies to 2-1.
Woakes had Dwayne Smith picked up in the slips by Ian Bell in the seventh over for 21, the second highest score of the innings.
Wickets continued to fall at regular intervals with only Lendl Simmons providing sustained resistance.
He hit 45 off 55 balls, with four boundaries plus the only six of the innings, over wide long on, off spinner James Tredwell.
Smith and Simmons apart, no other batsman scored more than 12 and no partnership exceeded 34.
Woakes said England would definitely have sent the West Indies in if they had won the toss and that his team had bowled well as a unit.
"We won the game pretty convincingly, it was a good run out in that aspect," Woakes said.
"But it would have been nice for a few more batters to get bit of time in the middle.
"But from a bowling point of view, I thought we put the ball in the right areas and got out of it what we needed."
West Indies team manager and batting great Richie Richardson downplayed worries about his team's performance, saying what really mattered was what happened during the World Cup.
"Not a very good start but it's not about the start, it's about the finish," Richardson said.
"We don't want to peak too early, we want to grow into the tournament. It's no reflection on how we are training.
"Hopefully, you won't see us play like that again."
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