'We're on Target ' - JCA president confident Sabina Park will be ready for first day-night Test

Preparations at Sabina Park are in their final stages as the venue gets ready to host its first-ever day-night Test match during Australia’s current tour of the Caribbean. The historic fixture, scheduled to begin on July 12, has faced multiple delays, especially in the installation of floodlights, which were originally expected to be completed earlier this year but only went up recently. One section near the Kingston Cricket Club stand was still found to be poorly lit during recent testing.

Despite these challenges, the Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) is confident everything will be ready on time. Final approval from the International Cricket Council (ICC) will come after an inspection, which is expected to take place a few days before the match. Meanwhile, a scoreboard and replay screen upgrade, funded by India, also faced setbacks after issues were found during the removal of the old structure, causing further delays.

Dr. Donovan Bennett, president of the JCA, spoke about the situation: “I’m pretty sure about that [being ready]. 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 told the Jamaica Observer, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

Final Touches Underway Before ICC Inspection

Dr. Bennett added that he still feels confident about the July 12 timeline. “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 [Monday] with a laser beam to do the final fine-tuning.”

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Cricket West Indies (CWI) also expects the match to go ahead as a day-night Test as planned. Sabina Park is also set to host the first two T20 Internationals of the series under lights after the Test concludes. This will be the second day-night Test ever played in the Caribbean; the first was between the West Indies and Sri Lanka in Barbados back in 2018. Australia, known for their dominance in pink-ball Tests, has won 12 out of 13 matches in this format, with their only loss coming against the West Indies at the Gabba last year.