Lord's unveils high-tech sightscreen

Lord's, already home to a spectacular, pod-shaped media centre, has installed a plastic sightscreen coated with a special film that makes it function like a one-way mirror.

"It's the best of both worlds," Lord's spokesman Iain Wilton said. "It gives the batsman a clear view of the ball against the sightscreen and it enables people to see the cricket clearly."

Sightscreens allow the batsman to pick out the ball as it leaves the bowler's hand but they often obscure the spectators' view of the action. Without a screen the ball would be lost against the background of the crowd.

The new screen replaces one that has been used for about half a century in front of the famous Lord's Pavilion, which is only open to members of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC),

"For the spectators behind it just looks like a tinted piece of glass, and for the players it looks very much like a conventional sightscreen," Wilton added.

He could not give details of the cost of the screen and said he did not know of any similar ones at other grounds.

Lord's unveiled the screen the day before MCC members vote on an 8.2 million-pound ($14.7 million) refurbishment scheme.

If approved, the first major refurbishment in the building's 114-year history would restore the famous Long Room's original decor, install a new roof terrace and bring two Pavilion turrets back into use.