Sabina Park is cutting it fine. Jamaica’s famous ground has never staged a day-night Test and, with Australia due in on 12 July, work on the floodlights and the electronic scoreboard is running late. The venue needs a final thumbs-up from ICC officials early next week; without it, the third Test of the series cannot be played under lights.
The root of the problem is timing. The six new light towers were supposed to be up before the end of last year, then by May, yet crews only finished lifting them into position a few days ago. A recent trial revealed one dim patch in front of the Kingston Cricket Club stand, an area that has to be fixed before the match can use the pink ball.
“I’m pretty sure about that [being ready],” JCA president Dr Donovan Bennett told the Jamaica Observer. “I’m a little bit uneasy because I would have hoped that everything would have been completed by now but when you’re doing construction, as you go along there are a lot of unforeseen circumstances that you’re challenged with which will push you back and that’s exactly what has happened with the lights and the scoreboard.”
He remains upbeat, despite the tight schedule: “But we’re on target, I’m confident that we’ll be okay with both the lighting and the scoreboard for the 12th, when the games are scheduled, I’m sure we’ll be okay.”
Bennett added a note of detail only a project manager could love. “Certain areas of the field are way above the international requirements but there’s one area that we need to work on to get it up…the English, who supplied the lights, they will be coming in on the seventh [Monday] with a laser beam to do the final fine-tuning.”
Cricket West Indies share that optimism and have told team managements to prepare for a pink-ball contest. The upgrades, including a replay screen funded by the Indian government, must still pass independent light-meter tests once the laser adjustment is done.
If everything comes together, the match will be only the Caribbean’s second day-night Test, the first being Sri Lanka’s win in Barbados back in 2018. Australia, by contrast, treat the format as routine. They have played 13 day-night Tests, winning 12, with the lone defeat coming against West Indies in Brisbane last year.
Should Sabina Park get its approval, it will also stage the first two T20 internationals of the tour under lights—a useful, low-stakes rehearsal for both bulb and batter alike.
