Cricket Australia had identified the need for an Australian standard for lighting non-televised cricket pitches. This gap in regulation means pitches across Australia have different lighting levels despite similar ground conditions and infrastructure. This inconsistency can lead to problems for players and can further perpetuate home ground advantages or make both teams play at a reduced standard. To lift playing conditions to world-class levels, Cricket Australia needed a standard for pitch lighting to alleviate past inconsistencies and provide its cricketers with certainty and confidence.

When developing new lighting standards for Cricket Australia, we looked at other standards across the world to see if there was any information that could be utilised. European Standard, EN12193: Light and Lighting – Sports Lighting was used as a framework as it was found to align with Cricket Australia’s project objective. The new Cricket Australia standard developed by DMA ensures consistency is maintained across various playing conditions and locations. This is achieved by:

• Clearly defining lighting classes to accommodate the different standards of light required at different venues, such as junior venues, which require less light than a cricket pitch hosting national level cricket.
• Specifying varying lighting levels and glare ratings across the pitch.
• Identifying measurement areas to help calculate the suitability of illumination on the cricket pitch.

DMA’s efforts to deliver clear national standards for Cricket Australia will have a lasting positive impact on the future playing experiences for players, meaning for the first time all pitches will be equally lit and will have similar lighting levels. This will allow more players to play at their peak, without lighting level inhibiting their performance.