HINDSIGHT, they say, is 20/20. Looking back, it’s easy to suggest that if the Government of the day could have found more than US$100 million to prepare for the ICC Cricket World Cup of 2007, then another million or so to put in lights at Sabina Park would not have hurt.

The truth, though, is that then Prime Minister PJ Patterson and his Government came under intense pressure for the spend on the 2007 World Cup.

Indeed, it’s no secret that there was considerable naysaying, not only from the political Opposition and others in the wider society, but also from within the Administration and indeed the Cabinet.

With the change of Government in late 2007, followed within two years by the dreadful fallout from the global financial collapse, the case for lights at Sabina Park dimmed considerably.

Also, as minister with responsibility for sports, Natalie Neita-Headley has said a Government having to deal with competing demands in areas such as education, health, national security, and social security must look to its priorities — which is not to suggest that sports is not important; just that there are literally ‘life and death’ issues that must be dealt with first.

If the Government’s situation was tight a few years ago, it’s even more so now. Realistically, the upcoming debt reduction and economic restructuring programme to be finalised soon with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will leave the Portia Simpson Miller Administration with very little, if any resources to expend on projects such as lighting at Sabina Park.

Yet, lights at Sabina are now an absolute necessity. Not just for night cricket under the professional franchise system, which will take hold in the Caribbean in August, but also to ensure that the historic ground takes on a centralised, multi-purpose role in the redevelopment of downtown Kingston.

The situation cries out for partnerships in cash and kind between all stakeholders — led by the cricket fraternity which, after all, will benefit most from a viable and dynamic Sabina Park.

Hopefully at the awards function scheduled for last night, there were new, fresh ideas on how to develop Sabina — including the installation of lights.

To put it very mildly, the seeming incapacity of the local cricket authorities to maximise and exploit the appeal of one of the world’s most revered cricket grounds is distressing. By now Sabina should be on the ‘go to’ list for tourists from cricket-playing countries such as England. In fact, after many years of talk, the museum which should be showcasing extraordinary events at Sabina, including the ‘Timeless Test’ of 1930 and Sir Garfield Sobers’ then world record 365 in 1958, is still nowhere.

There is no point just waiting around on a cash-strapped Government. Cricket needs to help itself. It needs visionary leadership.