St George's Park gets grand renovation before SA v ZIM day-night Test

The iconic venue of St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth recently got a grand renovation ahead of the Boxing Day Test this year. The venue is known as the home of South African cricket for historic reasons. It is the venue that hosted the first ever match to be played on the South African soil. It was played way back in the year 1889 against England.

The Proteas camp had lost the match by 8 wickets. Cricket in South Africa has come a long way since then. And now, the venue has fetched a renovation that includes the installation of new floodlights. Also, the use of LEDs in the scoreboards have been incorporated to reduce the electricity consumption. “The Old Lady is looking really good,” Mark Williams‚ the chief executive of the Warriors and the Eastern Province Cricket Board‚ said from his office at St George’s Park.

The Cricket administration has spent R27-million on the floodlights and R39.7-million has been spent on other improvements‚ including a new scoreboard and drainage system, as per the reports in Timeslive.

“In the centre of the pitch we averaged 3700 lux. I reckon it will be consistent around 3000 lux. We adjusted the lights down to 45% of capacity and in the centre of the pitch we were clocking 2000 lux,” Williams quoted.

Expecting a good crowd for the game

Commenting on the upcoming Boxing Day Test, Williams mentioned that St George’s Park has always received good crowds. Considering the fact that the match against Zimbabwe will be the first ever day-night four-day Test, the crowds should gather in big numbers for the historic game.

“PE has a good cricket culture and it’s a good time of the year‚ and folks are used to our Boxing Day test. I believe the crowd is looking forward to it. Day/night events at St George’s Park are always better attended‚ and I reckon there will be a better response,” he mentioned.

“At the latter part of the day and into the early evening‚ there is a bit of a gap [for the public‚ tourists especially]. It could be filled by the cricket; we’re certainly going to try and put on something special,” he added further.