For the first time, cricket will be played at night on the Dubai Cricket Council's turf wicket. From November 7, the lush green ground at the DCC complex will be bathed in light and cricketers in coloured clothing will be seen in action in the Ramadan cricket tournament.

The initiative to bring night cricket to Dubai is being backed by Dulsco, a company whose sports club organises many sports events every year.

"The floodlight poles have already been erected and Dulsco will stage their first Ramadan tournament under lights on our turf wicket," remarked Farrukh Siddiqui, Convenor of the DCC grounds committee to Gulf News.

"We are happy that Dulsco has taken the initiative to stage night cricket here by providing all materials. After Dulsco's Ramadan floodlight cricket, DCC will also try and stage tournaments at night. We are thankful to Dulsco for their support," said Siddiqui.

"Night cricket seems to be very popular here. The tremendous demand from clubs to take part in the Dulsco event shows that people love playing night cricket. This may also help us realise our dream of staging two-day matches as it would not clash with the players' job timings," he added.

The DEWA sub-station will be providing the electricity for the floodlights. Though the floodlight poles are not permanent structures like in the Sharjah Stadium, Dulsco has got them made in such a way that they can be easily erected when required.

"Dulsco has always been a pioneer in the growth of cricket in UAE. We realised that it would be unique if we could organise a floodlit cricket on a turf wicket. And since the DCC has a good turf wicket, and we have the poles and lights, we felt it was a good opportunity to stage night cricket. So when we approached the DCC, they readily responded," said Johnson Alexander, Hon General Secretary of the Dulsco Sports Club.

"The DCC officials were very happy with our suggestion and promptly provided all help needed for setting up of the floodlights for our first Ramadan cricket tournament starting this Thursday," informed Alexander.

"We had discussions with DCC officials and we have agreed to provide them with the poles and light whenever required for their tournaments on a mutual support basis," he said.

Shaik Rafik, the co-ordinator of the Dulsco Sports Club, who has been overseeing the arrangements at the ground, said: "White cricket balls and a black sidescreen will be used and all players will be provided with coloured clothing. We should be staging one of the finest and well organised night cricket in Dubai."

"Since the response from clubs was extremely encouraging, we decided to increase the number of groups. Twenty 'B' division and five 'A' divisions teams would be participating in the event.

Attractive prizes are also in the offing. 'A' division teams are to be awarded cash prizes of Dh7000 and Dh5000, and in the 'B' Division, the winner and runners-up will get Dh4000 and Dh3000 respectively.

Based on the success of this tournament, DCC is looking forward to utilise Thursdays to organise night tournaments.