Blinded by the light: Napier sunstrike solution not glaringly obvious
Stopping sunstrike from blinding batsmen at Napier’s McLean Park is unlikely to be easy or cheap, Napier City Council has warned.
For the second year in a row, sunstrike forced a stoppage of play in a Black Caps cricket match at McLean Park on Tuesday night.
Play was halted just after 8pm during the first innings of their Twenty20 international against Pakistan.
The umpires decided the glaring sun peeking over the Chapman Stand at the western end of the ground was dangerous to the New Zealand batsmen facing 135km/h to 140km/h plus deliveries.
The unique phenomenon comes about in day-night games, when the sun sets over the Chapman Stand.
Because the McLean Park pitches are aligned east-to-west, rather than the traditional north-to-south, the glare shines directly down the wicket when there is limited cloud cover. It most notably affects the batsmen, and the fielders down on the fine leg and third man boundaries.
After a five minute-delay, they were able to resume and Pakistan went on to chase down the Black Caps’ total of 173 with two balls to spare and four wickets in hand.
A Napier City Council spokeswoman said the issue will be part of the T20 debrief council staff will hold with New Zealand Cricket officials next month.
“Sunstrike does cause some issues very occasionally and for a short amount of time at McLean Park during the cricket season,” she said.
“Options to fix the sunstrike are being investigated but they are unlikely to be easy or cheap, and any remedies would need to be discussed and approved by councillors.”
During the television broadcast, commentators suggested various fixes for the sunstrike, including a structure being built on the Chapman Stand and Rodney Green Stands to block out the sun. A crane dangling some form of shade, that could be moved, was also suggested.
Sunstrike also halted an ODI at McLean Park between New Zealand and India in January 2019, with play stopping for 37 minutes.
“It’s hard to move the sun and hard to move the grandstand, we didn’t have either of those options so we had to sit down for a bit,” Black Caps captain Kane Williamson joked at the time.
After Tuesday’s game, Black Caps bowler Tim Southee said there was little that could be done about the unique challenge.
“It’s something we’ve come to kind of almost expect, the last few games we’ve played here,” he said.
Pakistan coach Misbah-ul-Haq said the glare of the sun makes it tough for the batsmen especially.
“It was okay for us because we were bowling,” he said.
The sunstrike problem is not the only problem McLean Park has had recently, with drainage issues causing farcical scenes in 2017 when an ODI against Australia was abandoned despite hours of sunshine — the second year in a row a game was called off due to a wet outfield. A $4.9 million investment later, and a new turf has held up well, but the venue now has to deal with delays due to the sun.