With the installation of new lights at Sabina Park set to begin in the coming days, Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) President Dr Donovan Bennett says he’s confident there will be no glitch during the West Indies versus Australia series this July.

The JCA is currently in preparation mode as Sabina Park, the island’s premier cricket ground, is set to host the third Test between the Windies and the top-ranked Aussies July 12-16, as well as the first two Twenty20 Internationals on July 20 and July 22.

The tour will have added significance as it will be the first time ever that Sabina Park will host a day/night pink ball test and only the second time such a match will take place in the Caribbean.

Bennett told the Jamaica Observer that after months of anticipation, work can officially begin to replace the old lights after Government handed over $75 million to help finance the project.

“The new lights are here, they’ve been here for a week. We just received the funding [on Tuesday] from the Government to pay for the lights because the providers wouldn’t release the lights until the payment was done in full, so we should have the lights released tomorrow and we should start installation immediately thereafter,” he said.

Despite the venue set to host the Jamaica Premier League second leg semi-finals this Sunday, Bennett expects the work to be completed before the start of June.

“The projection from the installer is that the lights will be all installed by the end of May and the only reason it’s going to take so long is because we have one further commitment from the football fraternity so we have to install the lights pavilion by pavilion so it doesn’t interfere with [those] games,” he said.

Dr Bennett also revealed the $159-million scoreboard donated by the Indian Government should be completed shortly.

“The scoreboard has been shipped from India and it takes 30 days from India so we expect the scoreboard to be here by next week. The Indians are, in fact, coming in this weekend to begin the installation as soon as the scoreboard is cleared so that’s all set and ready to go,” he said. “It wasn’t only built in India but tested in India before it was shipped out here so we don’t anticipate any problems, so we’re well within our schedule to have it installed long before the Australia game.”

Concerns were raised over Sabina Park’s ability to host night games last Thursday when two floodlights failed to turn on which forced the JPL quarter-finals to be moved to Stadium East the following day.

Dr Bennett, however, says it’s unlikely there will be electrical problems in the future after addressing some key issues.

“As you noticed, the games went on Monday night without any problem because both generators have been serviced and are running perfectly and that’s what we used to do the two games,” he said.

“There’s a problem with the JPS electrical input because when we had that power failure, which didn’t [only] affect Sabina Park but the surrounding areas also, when the power came back there was a surge which damaged some of the cables that would take the current into Sabina Park. As we speak, we’re changing those out now so in the next couple of days, we’ll not only have our JPS current back up but we’ll have our back-up system in place.”

The JCA boss is hoping to prove the critics wrong when the upgrades are showcased during special urban vs rural high school games at the end of June.

“This isn’t the reason we’re having the schoolboy games because my plan is to have it as a regular yearly event, it’s not going to be a one-off event. But one of the benefits of playing the game at Sabina, because we didn’t have to play it at Sabina, is to use the game as, not as a test, but as a demonstration to everyone [and] all the doubting Thomases that the lights and scoreboard are installed, up and running and ready,” said Dr Bennett.

Aerial view of Sabina Park under lights