WI vs AUS | Floodlights await approval ahead of day-night Test at Jamaica from July 12
The floodlights at Sabina Park in Jamaica are yet to get the final approval from the ICC ahead of the day-night Test between West Indies and Australia next Saturday. Jamaica will hold its first day-night Test with the final game of the three-match series between both sides scheduled from July 12.
With delays in the installation of the new floodlight system, which was pushed from its original deadline earlier this year, some parts of the ground were not found to be sufficiently lit during recent test events. Along with the floodlights, the upgradation of the scoreboard and replay screen has also been delayed, with the ICC set to inspect the venue early next week.
The Jamaican Cricket Association, however, is confident that it will get the go-ahead from the ICC just in time, and the Test match will happen as a day-night contest as planned earlier.
"I'm pretty sure about that [being ready]," JCA president Dr Donovan Bennett told the Jamaica Observer last week. "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.
"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. 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, will be coming in on the seventh with a laser beam to do the final fine-tuning," he summed up.