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Business News/ News / Business Of Life/  Cricket: Big boys play at night
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Cricket: Big boys play at night

The first ever day-night Test may just be the change Test cricket desperately needs

Hamish Rutherford of New Zealand with the pink ball. Photo: Greg Wood/AFPPremium
Hamish Rutherford of New Zealand with the pink ball. Photo: Greg Wood/AFP

OTHERS :

The first ever day-night One Day International (ODI) was played on 27 November in Sydney in 1979 between Australia and West Indies; the date has great sentimental value for Cricket Australia. This year, 27 November will see the beginning of something that promises to be equally revolutionary in the game—Australia will play New Zealand at the Adelaide Oval in the first ever day-night Test match, the third and final match of the ongoing series. It is perhaps the boldest move Test cricket has made in its 138-year-old history, and it has not been easy. Tests are seen and loved as relics and monuments are—as the format that preserves the game like it is meant to be—but in the last decade or so, with the coming of Twenty20 (T20), Test matches have seen plummeting attendance.

“I love all cricket but my preferred format of the game is Test cricket. And I honestly believe if we do nothing, then we are at the risk of loving Test cricket to death," says Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland, who has been unflinching in his pursuit to make day-night Test a real possibility.

The move has divided the opinion of the cricket world, as almost any changes to the Test format seem to do.

Ironically, modern greats like Australia’s Ricky Ponting and England’s Kevin Pietersen have expressed their reservation, while the likes of Australia’s Greg Chappell and Mark Taylor are so enthused by this move that they are even predicting a future where Tests will be restricted to four days instead of five.

Meanwhile, the cricket-watching world is sharply focused on the first day-night match, and its possible ramifications.

“If the day-night Test experiment succeeds, then a format struggling to maintain its relevance in the modern era could be given the shot in the arm it so desperately needs," said an article in The Independent last week. India’s Test captain Virat Kohli, who is on the verge of breaking South Africa’s unbeaten streak in Test series since 2006, endorsed the concept on the eve of the ongoing Nagpur Test. “It’s a landmark Test. It is a big experiment. It is a big step towards changing something in Test cricket. I hope it works. I hope it can be another option as well," said Kohli. He also lauded the players and administrators of Australia and New Zealand for thinking about the future of the Test. “I’m glad that two teams have actually agreed to play an official Test like that as an experiment. Credit to Australia and New Zealand both that they have decided to do this. Hopefully, it will be better for the game. It will be a step which we all might remember few years down the line."

Purists who have argued that Test cricket should be left alone and such experiments may not go well with the supporters of the game, are mostly traditionalists. Despite the sense of overprotection surrounding the Test format, countless rule changes over the years have meant that the game has adapted to the demands of the times. Many players of this generation might not even be aware of the fact that Test cricket has been played in “timeless", six-day, four-day, even three-day formats. There even used to be a rest day within a match.

Besides, the longest format cannot afford to ignore the harsh reality of its diminishing popularity. Even in a country like India, Test match attendance is getting poorer. At Mohali, where India beat South Africa in the high-stakes first Test of the ongoing series, the stands were empty.

“I am in favour of this day-night concept," says Irfan Pathan, who made his Test debut for India at the Adelaide Oval in 2003. “The game is always evolving. Earlier it was 60 overs in ODI (One Day International), then 50 overs and then T20 was born."

The birth of ODI cricket is well known. It came out of desperation after four consecutive days of an Ashes Test at Melbourne were washed out in 1979. In an attempt to please the paying public, the last day of the match was conceived as a “compressed Test match". Such was the indecisiveness of the England and Australian cricket boards to do this that the teams were called England XI and Australia XI. Similarly, when Australia played New Zealand in the inaugural T20 international in 2005, very few imagined that this was going to change the landscape of cricket forever.

“Perhaps it wasn’t taken as seriously as what it should have been," says New Zealand’s Craig McMillan, who played in that match and is now assistant coach of New Zealand. “No one had the inkling in eight years time it was going to be the norm and part of the calendar. That’s why it’s important we prepare properly and we look forward to this, because we just don’t know in three or four years’ time where cricket is going to head. I think it’s important, as a sport, that we’re always looking to encourage different groups, different people to come to the game, and this is certainly a way of doing that," he says about the day-night Test.

Cricket Australia is so confident of its success that it has even started persuading the Pakistan Cricket Board to play a day-night Test in the Australian summer of 2016. Other stakeholders are more cautious.

One vital question that this day-night match will seek to answer is whether the pink ball will work. Under lights, the red ball used in Tests is difficult to sight, which is why day-night matches use white balls. But the white ball can’t be sighted in Tests because players wear white clothing. So the pink ball was developed to allow Tests to be played under lights.

“If there’s one thing that everyone agrees on, it’s that the pink ball in Test cricket is a big unknown," says Tony Irish, chief of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations.

The pink ball, developed over many years by the Australian manufacturer Kookaburra, has been used in three lead-up local matches in Adelaide.

“I’ve heard a few players giving feedback on playing with the pink ball. The only thing they were concerned about was that during twilight it was very hard to pick the ball," Kohli said. “During the day it was fine, during the night it was alright as well. But when the floodlights were not on and when the sun was going down, was when they found it difficult."

Australian spinner Nathan Lyon, in the team for the Adelaide Test, is excited about it: “It usually swings with the new ball and also under lights it tends to swing a little bit more," he said at a press conference last week. “It’s perfect. Batters can’t see the seam. It’s going to be pretty interesting."

David Warner, who hit twin centuries in Brisbane and a maiden double-ton in Perth, believes a switch to the pink ball and a likely grassy Adelaide Oval pitch may tilt the balance to the bowlers.

“The last two wickets have been very batter-friendly," Warner said. “It’s going to be a different story playing here and I think you’ll see the ball move around a bit off the wicket."

Pathan suggests that the day-night change will have its intended effect, bringing in more people to the stadium. “When the fathers after returning from their offices are joined by sons who don’t have to go to school at that time, you will see a different set of crowd," he says.

Arguing fiercely that day-night Test cricket with a pink ball can help save the format, The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper’s sports columnist Malcolm Knox summed it up in a recent article: “Like all change, I suspect the first day-night Test match will seem a bigger worry in the anticipation than in the realisation. I’m with Steve Waugh on this one: once the day-night Test takes place, we will wonder why it took so long."

Vimal Kumar is the author of Sachin: Cricketer Of The Century and The Cricket Fanatic’s Essential Guide.

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Published: 25 Nov 2015, 07:42 PM IST
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