How long are cricket light poles?

It is very important to identify the height of the light poles which are used for lighting the cricket stadium for optimal lighting. The light poles which are too low will produce light glares while in a match. Similarly, the light poles which are too high may produce unnecessary costs.

The cricket stadium lights mostly consists of 4 light poles with their heights ranging around 18 to 20 meters. Cricket Stadium Lights for Non-televised Matches belonging to Class I, II and III according to standard will be 20 to 25 meters high mast and 4 in quantity.

The ICC is more strict in lighting traditional cricket stadiums which has classified the cricket stadium lighting standards into three classes, depending on the level of competition and the type of match.

Cricket stadium lighting must have a color rendering index of more than 90. The international cricket stadiums mostly require 30 to 40 meters 6 High mast lights with the lighting illumination very high at 1500 to 2500 lux.

The average heights and number of poles required for each class of cricket stadium are as follows:

• Class-I Cricket Ground: The lights are 20 to 40 meters tall (66 to 131 feet tall) and the standard number of poles required is 4 to 8.
• Class-II Cricket Ground: The lights are 15 to 25 meters tall (49 to 82 feel tall) and the standard number of poles required is 4 to 6.
• Class-III Cricket Ground: The lights are 8 to 18 meters tall (26 to 59 feet tall) and the standard number of poles required is 4 to 6.

Normally, cricket stadiums have these heights for their light poles.

Factors affecting Cricket Stadium Light Pole heights:

Choosing the optimal height and number for lights is an important point to consider. However, only the height of the light pole is not enough for optimal sports experience. Other factors taken into consideration are the illumination done by the light poles, size of cricket field, type of stadium lights and the intensity of cricket match.

The standard lighting requirement for cricket stadium lights is as follows:

• Class-I Cricket Ground: The light uniformity must be greater than (0.7) with the pitch having 750 lux and the outfield having 500 lux of luminescence.
• Class-II Cricket Ground: The light uniformity must be greater than (0.7) with the pitch having 500 lux and the outfield having 300 lux of luminescence.
• Class-III Cricket Ground: The light uniformity must be greater than (0.5) with the pitch having 300 lux and the outfield having 200 lux of luminescence.

There are certain problems if the lights used do not have optimal height:

Too high lights:

 If the light poles used are too high, it will need a larger number of lights to illuminate the same amount of area of the field. This will incur unnecessary light pollution, wastage of electricity and huge avoidable costs. This decision will prove highly uneconomical.

Too low lights:

If the light poles used are too low, it will cause non uniform distribution of light. Although spot lights are used to focus on certain uncovered and major areas of a cricket field, it is still not a good idea to use really low lights.

The lights used too close to the players will also increase the temperature and also hinder the viewers vision as they produce a glare due to their intense lighting.