VCA Civil Lines’ chance of hosting eves domestic KO ties ‘brightens’

  

 

The Old Stadium illuminated with floodlights

 

By Paritosh Pramanik

WITH Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) Stadium in Civil Lines getting upgraded with floodlights, there are possibilities of the venue hosting women’s white-ball knock-out matches in coming days.
In less than two months, VCA has upgraded the Civil Lines Stadium with the Lux LED lights which will now fulfil BCCI’s demand of hosting women’s domestic knock-out matches under lights.
The testing of lights were held on Thursday night and there was a bright glow all over the spherical venue.
Talking with ‘The Hitavada’, VCA Chief Executive Officer Farokh Dastoor said that the floodlights are installed at a cost of around Rs four crores.
“There was a need for lights on the ground. There were many factors which compelled the association to upgrade the facilities. With the BCCI making it compulsory to hold women’s knock-out matches under lights we decided to have one at one of the oldest venues of the country,” said Dastoor.
Chennai-based Lighting Technology in collaboration with a Russian firm installed the four towers and the LED light panels.
“A total of 192 LED lights have been installed with each tower having 48 lights,” informed Dastoor.
As per ICC rules, lighting at the ground should be of 2500 Lux. But VCA went further and installed the lights of 3500 Lux, making it brighter.
(Lux is a standardised unit of measurement of light level intensity. It is commonly referred to as illuminance or illumination. One Lux is equal to the illumination of one metre square surface that is one metre away from a single candle.)
Dastoor said that with the upgrade, VCA now qualifies
for hosting the knock-out matches.
“We are the only association in the country having four grounds, with one exclusively for women. The BCCI wanted all the women’s white ball knock-outs matches to be conducted under lights. Earlier, we could not host knock-outs as we had only one ground with lighting facilities (VCA Jamtha). But now we can host women’s knock-out matches at both the grounds. We hope that in the coming season, we might host women’s domestic games (U-19, U-23),” said Dastoor.
Not only the women’s matches, even other age group teams of Vidarbha will take the benefit of
training under light in the city itself.