Following weeks of tension surrounding the readiness of Sabina Park for the West Indies’ pink ball Test against Australia, Jamaica Cricket Association President Dr Donovan Bennett says he’s elated after receiving the approval from the International Cricket Council (ICC) and Cricket West Indies (CWI) for the match to go ahead.

The historic day-night Test, scheduled for Saturday afternoon, was in doubt as the installation and upgrading of the lights at Sabina Park were still being worked on as of Tuesday. The new electronic scoreboard, donated by the Indian government, was also still in the installation process as of Wednesday morning, sources told the
Jamaica Observer.

However, after an inspection from representatives of the cricket’s world governing body and CWI, Bennett confirmed that all issues have been resolved.

“We’re fine now — the lights have been focused and tested and everything is a go with the lights now. That is now behind us,” Bennett told the Jamaica Observer. “The scoreboard is being powered as we speak [on Wednesday], and they should be up so we’re ready for the pink ball Test match, that’s definitely on for Saturday at 2 o’clock. The team from CWI and the team from ICC tested it also, so we’re good.

“I’m relieved. [Last week] I was confident but I didn’t want to say anything definitive because you have to wait until all the tests are done before you can go out there and make any real positive statements. Now for the first time, I feel I’m in a position where I can tell you that everything is fine and we’ll have a good Test match.”

In May, the Jamaica Premier League quarter-finals at Sabina Park were postponed after a floodlight failure due to an electrical issue. The National Stadium has also faced electrical issues which caused lighting outages.

Bennett, though, says he’s expecting no such issue during the five days of the Test match.

“Everything is fixed and we’re all go now,” Bennett said. “The power room has been rewired, everything has been done, everything is fine and there’s no reason to go back there. We’re in a different era, we are ready, and we’ve been certified.”

A less-spoken-about aspect of the venue is the pitch of the Sabina Park. Bennett says it will help produce a quality match, unlike Barbados’ Kensington Oval and Grenada’s National Cricket Stadium, which were both scrutinised during the two previous Tests.

“The outfield is in very good condition,” Bennett said. “The pitch is a work in progress — we’re waiting for the West Indies coach Daren Sammy to give us final directives as to what he wants so he’s supposed to be coming down [on Wednesday evening] to have a look and see exactly what he would want in terms of the amount of grass on the wicket because the home team always has the option of giving directives to the groundsman as to what the team wants. So, once the directives are given, we’ll go through the final preparations.

“But the preparations have been going on for weeks. We haven’t sat down and waited until the last moment so you can expect a much better wicket at Sabina than what happened in Barbados or in Grenada because I think those two wickets were atrocious – they weren’t fit for Test cricket. So, we’re trying to do a lot better in Jamaica.”

Bennett says he’s pleased with the overall work done at the stadium but says more work needs to be done for future matches.

“Sabina Park is looking good because not only have we got the lights up, scoreboard, etcetera but the aesthetics — the stadium has been painted and stuff like that. The area where the players are and operate from, those areas have been completely gutted and refurbished so we’re happy,” he said.

“I’m not telling you that Sabina Park is now in a position where it can rank with the best cricket stadiums in the world — no, far from it. But the work is in progress. We don’t intend to sit on our laurels. Even after the Test match is done, we plan to keep on tackling the problems to bring the park up to a state where all Jamaicans will be comfortable and proud.”

The West Indies will be looking to avoid a whitewash as they trail the Aussies 2-0 in the three-match series.

Sabina Park curator Michael Hylton inspects the playing surface on Wednesday, ahead of the third and final Test, a day-night cricket match, between West Indies and Australia on Saturday.(Photo: Garfield Robinson)