Jazzed-up day-night games – complete with colourful clothing and white balls – have become commonplace in cricket’s one-day games, but traditionalists have been reluctant to see the five-day game go down the same route.
But on November 27 the Aussies and the Kiwis will contest the final match of their three-match series under lights in Adelaide – using a pink ball but with both teams wearing traditional whites. Meanwhile ‘lunch’ and ‘tea’ will be rechristened ‘tea’ and ‘dinner’.
Heath Mills, chief executive of the New Zealand Cricket Players’ Association, said members were nervous about the experiment – with concerns about the difficulties of playing Test cricket under varying light and coping with the pink ball. “It’s uncharted territory and because of that there will be uncertainty and apprehension,” he said, quoted by the BBC.
But James Sutherland, chief executive of Cricket Australia, said he hoped the idea would stimulate interest in the game. “One of the global challenges with Test cricket is that most of the matches outside holiday periods are played on weekdays, in the middle of the day when people are at work and kids are at school,” he told the BBC.
“By shifting the playing times, each day’s play can go into the evening and allow people to come in after work or after school to attend the last few hours of play.”
