The Pakistan Cricket Board plans to use new floodlights at stadiums in Karachi and Lahore for the Champions Trophy in early 2024. According to PTI, the PCB will also install these new light towers on a rental basis at smaller venues like Quetta, Abbottabad, and Peshawar to ensure they can play matches under lights during the hot weather of their busy domestic season.
To save money, the PCB has decided to relocate the existing floodlights from Karachi to Quetta and from Lahore to Rawalpindi. Karachi and Lahore will receive new light towers, and the PCB has begun a process to invite bids from qualified companies to supply these light towers on a rental basis from August 2024 to July 2025.
A person on the board couldn’t provide exact costs for this process, but mentioned that some of the towers would be sponsored.
“The goal of this process is to make sure that smaller venues have light towers for local cricket, and major venues like Karachi, Lahore, and Rawalpindi, where most international games and championship matches are played, get towers that provide international-standard lighting without any interruptions during the matches,” he explained.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has asked companies to submit bids for providing generators to cities like Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan, Faisalabad, Abbottabad, Quetta, Peshawar, and others.
A person familiar with the situation explained that because of unstable electricity and frequent power cuts, the PCB uses generators to supply power to the lighting systems at cricket grounds.
The PCB is currently making major improvements to its stadiums in Karachi, Lahore, and Rawalpindi. As a result, the upcoming second Test match against Bangladesh in Karachi will be held without any spectators. The PCB, according to the source, has already set aside money in its financial plan to pay for all the improvements and renovations of the stadiums.
