If you've been paying attention in and around Newlands Cricket Ground lately, you might have noticed that something is up. Or, rather, that they're not.
Look closely and you'll find that two of the five massive floodlight masts have been dismantled by cranes. On the remaining towers, many of the floodlights have been removed and carefully lowered to the ground.
Is this the end of the much-loved day/night fixtures at South Africa's most beautiful cricket ground? Definitely not. Rather, it's about future-proofing the city's much-loved oval for an action-packed few years of international and domestic cricket.
The upgrades form part of Cricket South Africa's preparations for the next Cricket World Cup, which will be hosted across South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia in October and November 2027. As part of the process, four stadiums in South Africa – The Wanderers, Supersport Park, Kingsmead and Newlands – are having their floodlights upgraded, replacing old-fashioned halogen lights with modern LED technology.
"We need to comply with the International Cricket Council standards around light levels," explains Western Province Cricket Association CEO, Corrie van Zyl. "As you can imagine, as time goes by, the lux levels on those existing lights drop. From a broadcast perspective, you need a certain lux level to have a proper product. LED is a much better light, and there's a lot more you can do with it."
"Fans are definitely going to notice the improved brightness on the pitch, but what's extremely exciting about this project is that there's also software that comes with the lights. You could even do a light show as a standalone event!" says Van Zyl. "So it's really going to make Newlands more of a multipurpose stadium, and accessible for other events."
But at Newlands, it's not just about replacing the lights. Tests done by Cricket South Africa and structural engineers showed that the floodlight pylons had also reached the end of their lifespan and needed to be replaced.
"So it's a total replacement of the floodlight infrastructure," says Van Zyl. "All five existing pylons are coming down and will be replaced. And as part of the project, a sixth smaller pylon will be added as well."
With the stadium's packed summer schedule – the Betway SA20 tournament is a fan-fest – fast approaching, timing is everything. Even as the Cape winter throws its best rainstorms at the project, the pressure is on to wrap up in the next few months.
"We have our first international game - the Proteas Women playing Ireland on the fifth of December, so everything must be ready and tested and signed off for that match," says Van Zyl. "So it needs to be done by the end of November at the latest."
And while fans – and players – can look forward to a brightly-lit pitch come December, shiny new floodlights are not the only upgrades happening at Cape Town's iconic oval.
"We're also hoping to start some work on the exterior of Newlands soon, so we're busy with that. It's a two-year project that we want to be completed by October 2026, before Australia and England play here, and to test our readiness for World Cup 2027," says Van Zyl. "The fans are really going to be in for a treat this year."
Find all the SA20 fixtures right over here!