HAMPSHIRE cricket will have the best floodlights in the country in time for the 2006 season.
Chairman Rod Brangrove's dream of giving the Rose Bowl £1m world class floodlights will go ahead after Eastleigh Borough Council gave the plan the thumbs up.
Hampshire's aim now is to stage two floodlit one-day internationals a year and proposals have already been submitted to the ECB for a long-term agreement to stage day/night ODIs.
Bransgrove said: "The approval is more fantastic news for the Rose Bowl and keeps us right on course with our plans to make this magnificent stadium an integral part of the international cricket scene.
"This will be the first ground in the country to offer a truly world class floodlit option for English cricket and I hope that the ECB will provide us with the long term commitment required to turn this dream into reality."
Work on six 30-metre floodlight towers, which house 46 state-of-the-art lamps, will begin at the end of the forthcoming season.
Hampshire will become the fourth county to erect permanent floodlights, after Sussex, Derbyshire and Essex, but will be erecting lights more like those used in Australia and South Africa than anything in the UK.
Rose Bowl plc are currently discussing a deal with electronic giants Phillips, and Bransgrove added: "We've been looking to do something to differentiate ourselves from the rest and they will give us every chance of hosting more international cricket in the future.
"I've had the pleasure of seeing one-day international cricket played under top lights in places like Cape Town and Perth and that's what we're planning to have at the Rose Bowl next year."
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