Abacus Put Cricket In The Spotlight

England’s most famous cricket grounds, Lords and The Oval, will be helping to make the game more accessible to spectators with the installation of floodlighting.

London, England: January 2009 - Two of England’s most famous cricket grounds, Lord’s and the The Oval, will be helping to make the game more accessible to spectators with the installation of floodlighting by English sports lighting company Abacus Lighting.

Floodlighting was a key element of the venues’ successful bids to co-host this summer’s ICC World Twenty20.

The ICC World Twenty20 opens on 5th June when England meet The Netherlands at Lord’s. As darkness falls, a push of a button will trigger four lighting masts to rise up to over 47 metres in a computer-controlled sequence to illuminate the famous grounds.

Abacus have already installed systems at other cricket grounds around the world including Stanford Park in Antigua, the Kensington Oval in Barbados and Green Park Stadium in Kanpur.

Six iconic floodlight masts were installed at Trent Bridge in 2008 and Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club Captain Chris Read was impressed by their quality.

"Floodlighting certainly improves cricket for players and supporters alike," said Read.

"It improves continuity of play and means that matches can be played into the evening to make the sport more accessible to a wide audience. The quality of light provided by our permanent floodlights at Trent Bridge is incomparable to the temporary lights we historically used."

The new floodlights at Lord’s and The Oval will replace the temporary solution of previous years that had seen masts brought in on a game-by-game basis.

Paul Wilson, UK Sales Director at Abacus Lighting said: "The system will offer significant reductions in glare and obtrusive light. This has been a problem in the past not only for residents, but also for players, umpires, broadcasters and spectators. At the same time, the new systems will increase lighting for TV by around four times the present levels. We’re very excited that Abacus has pulled off the hat-trick of lighting three of England’s most prestigious venues ahead of a global tournament."