It could cost the government of Antigua and Barbuda millions in US dollars to bring the lighting at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium up to acceptable international standards.
This is according to stadium manager Keithroy Black, who said they are currently awaiting quotes for international standard LED bulbs that would meet ICC standards and allow the venue to host international day/night matches.
“We are in possession of quotations as far as the costing for these lights are concerned and to put them up and so on. We got one and that is about three million US dollars and that does not include the work on the ground in terms of clearing and stuff. That is just for the lights and for the person to come and put them up. We are waiting on another one [quote] that would give us a better picture in terms of what we are working with,” he said.
The quality of lighting at the venue has been a topical debate where meeting international standards are concerned. Black said he had even written to the CPL last year ahead of scheduled matches at the stadium, sharing his concerns.
The manager also pointed to concerns over the perimeter fence, suggesting an entire rebuilding of the structure due to constant damage and vandalism.
“What we really want to get done is to change the entire fence line and that was the proposal from us as the management of the stadium and it wasn’t done and we’re still hoping that in short order we can get that done. It has to be done some time and some time sooner than later because the callers are correct as we’ve had situations where, sometimes, cars run into the fence and break it down and we have to keep patching and fixing. When we’re having events at the stadium, people would come with their pliers and cut the fence and leave a lot of patches so we have to keep repairing over and over and after every event we have to do repairs,” he said.
Black also revealed that maintenance of the historic Antigua Recreation Grounds (ARG) now falls under his purview and that work has already begun.
“Now we have to do a lot of maintenance work down there so we have a full=time cleaning crew and we also have a full-time ground staff down there, at least to try to keep it clean. We would have done a lot of work over on the South Stand or the Richie Richardson Stand and we’ve done a lot of work cleaning up the bathrooms, replacing a lot of the windows and so on so right after this tournament [under-15s] is over and done with then, we’re going to hit the North Stand,” the official said.
The ARG is currently being used as a host venue for the Cricket West Indies (CWI) Rising Starts Boys Under-15 Tournament.
