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The next step Test for day-night cricket

Roar Rookie
29th November, 2015
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Day-night Test matches are gaining traction (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
Roar Rookie
29th November, 2015
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The pink ball didn’t disintegrate and the world didn’t cave in; the confluence of two rival 70s political slogans, “It’s time” and “Turn on the lights” has given a neon shot of adrenaline to Test cricket.

As has been pointed out, the match itself had to take credit – a real contest between bat and ball, and two teams that we haven’t seen on these shores for some years contesting it. We also don’t know if people would turn up on a Monday or Tuesday under lights, so it’s another stroke of good fortune that it all happened on the most attendance-friendly days of Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

But like the lack of sound when a tree falls in an empty forest, Test Cricket is not as great if nobody sees it. The television ratings say plenty watched at night.

So what happens next? The mindset of Cricket Australia may well have shifted with this campaign and its success, usually one to be ‘second-in’ it could be a signifier of a bolder approach.

A bold innovative success buys untold political capital and Cricket Australia may be able to reap the rewards both in public perception (an overwhelming positive media and public reaction) and financial (the next television rights deal, crowd figures).

While some have immediately called for all Test cricket to be played at night there’s a complexity involved and there needs to be a strategy to deploy this new pink toy where it’s most needed. There’s also the need to keep something in reserve for a new television rights deal – you always need a new toy for those times.

The big question that will need to be addressed at some stage is whether the iconic Melbourne and Sydney Tests go down this path. The conundrum is that these are Tests that are already successful from an attendance and television worth – the majority of Australia is on holidays at these daytimes, unlike three fifths of Test cricket that is played prior to that point.

Further complexity arises from the clash with BBL as Jesse Hogan picked up in the Fairfax papers today – turning these matches into night matches would cannibalise the worth of the BBL television rights as it’s that period that BBL hits peak popularity. The irony of the innovations of Test Cricket creating fear for the long-term future of the BBL.

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So you could logically leave the Boxing Day and New Year’s Tests exempt from the lights and instead aim to reinvigorate the poor crowds of Hobart, Brisbane and Perth – don’t forget the gloom that was descending on Test Cricket in the weeks prior to the lights being turned on.

But there is still something gnawing away that you can’t have the new shiny toy but shut out your two biggest markets. Right now for a first night Test at the MCG or the SCG there would be packed houses that would dwarf total figures in the other cities.

So this may be the perfect storm for Cricket Australia to create the competitive tension that it clunkily communicated earlier this year in wanting State Governments to ‘bid’ for Tests.

Would Cricket Victoria or Cricket NSW campaign to hold a second Test in the season, one under lights against a different touring team from its Boxing Day/New Years duo? It could be positioned as something very different from the traditionally successful days, both in how it’s presented and when it’s played (pre-Christmas or even at the end of January).

Whether an extra Test is played in one of those cities is almost an irrelevance, the mere thought of a packed MCG or SCG under lights is enough to provide a real alternative that can re-shape Tests in low-drawing states. Use it or lose it, and instead of thrusting it upon an unsuspecting public Cricket Australia this time has the people on-side.

The lights have been turned on in more ways than one.

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