History will be created in September when the West Indies will play a Test match under lights for the very first time.The West Indies will tour the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to play two Tests, five ODIs and two T20s against Pakistan.The West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) has agreed to play one of the matches as a day-night affair.
Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Shaharyar Khan confirmed that the WICB have agreed to play one of the Test matches under lights It would be a first for UAE and first between Pakistan and West Indies. The venues have not been finalised as yet with Sharjah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi all having floodlit stadiums.
Pakistan will use this day-night Test in the UAE as a precursor for their tour of Australia where the first Test in Brisbane on December 15 to 19 will also be under lights.Recently there were reports that the series will not be played in the UAE and that the PCB was looking to stage the matches in Sri Lanka, at a reduced cost.
Pakistan has largely remained a no-go zone for international teams since March 3, 2009, when gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan team bus during the Lahore Test. Since then, the UAE has hosted a majority of Pakistan's home series, with only Afghanistan and Zimbabwe visiting Pakistan for one series each.
The idea of playing elsewhere emerged after the Pakistan Super League was held in Dubai and Sharjah in February; it cost the PCB more than US$ 3 million to stage the tournament over two weeks.
It is understood that officials from Dubai Sports City and the Sharjah stadium met PCB officials in Lahore to ask for increased venue costs for the bilateral series.
The PCB had been sharing revenues from gate money, ticketing and hospitality boxes with venues in the UAE previously, while the PSL was hosted with a rental agreement.
The West Indies are expected to get in some warm-up matches with the pink ball, when they arrive in Dubai on September 15 to begin the tour.
The WICB did experiment with the pink ball in their domestic tournament in 2009 but the practice was done away soon after.