There it was tucked away on the inside back page of The Australian sports section: “Pink and orange have firmed as the most likely options as the elusive search for a day-night test cricket ball goes global.”
I felt gratified to hear this.
Reading on, I came across this further gem: “Finding a suitable ball is the main barrier to Cricket Australia staging lucrative night tests in prime TV time.”
Well, call me vindicated and blow me down with a feather!
I’ve been suggesting for years that in order to preserve test cricket, the administrators need to introduce day-night tests to make them more relevant to the lifestyles of modern society.
That it might be lucrative to play them in prime TV time is purely a bonus.
Sometimes the simplest change is the best. You don’t have to radically alter test cricket’s rules to make it more attractive. Just sow it seamlessly into people’s lifestyles will be a very good start.
As the much maligned (when he writes on The Roar) Cricket Australia public affairs manager Peter Young said, “Globally, most premium sport is played at night.”
Gee Peter, go to the top of the class!
It further appears that following extensive tests that orange has won out over pink as perhaps the preferred colour for night cricket. I believe orange might be the right colour.
It seems ironic that night time internationals were successful via the World Series Cricket (WSC) supertests way, way back in the 1978/79 season. From memory, they played with a white ball (or was it yellow?) at night, but either way, it obviously became discoloured quickly as it was pelted about the place.
Cricket Australia and Channel 9 have been conducting the tests of the coloured balls away from the public arena, but are now willing to hand their findings over to the ICC, since this is a global issue.
So, we don’t need this radical departure of Twenty20 pink and lime green teams playing out of cities with odd names like Sixers and so, when a simple change like introducing day-night tests into prime TV time will do the trick.
Oh Vinay, where are you? You would love this!
Timmuh
Roar Guru
Perhaps the most ironic thing of all is that being a summer game, its almost light enough to play into (though not right through) prime time in Hobart and Melbourne (maybe Adelaide) without a change of ball. Lights would be needed, but only to "supplement the natural lighting", which the laws already allow, provided the skies are reasonably clear. There is an issue beyond just the ball though. Dew is a major concern in many places around the world, and even limited overs cricket should not be played at night in some places. Once a ball is thoroughly tested, conditions will need to put in place on which venues are suitable for day/night Tests. The game has changed a lot of the years, but most changes have evened out the conditions (most notably covered pitches and more recently - at least theoretically - pitches have to meet certain standards) or improved player safety. If the ball and conditions are not adequate, day/night Tests could throw up a new unfairness in the condiotns under which the game is played. There is also very little, if any, evidence that day/night Tests would attract larger attendances, though even without evidence it seems a fairly safe bet based on other sports and limited overs cricket that TV audiences would be larger. The night games with yellow/red hybrid ball that was used when C7 had Shield games didn't seem to bring more people through the gates - but that was the Shield, which no longer draws a crowd and barely draws an attendance so the comparison isn't entirely fair.
Tristan Rayner
Editor
So say all of us.
sheek
Guest
Thanks Brett, I'll check it out..... And yeah, I still miss Vinay.
Russ
Guest
Sheek, maybe. I do recall Ian Chappell saying that in the early days of WSC, the white ball wasn't visible against a batsman in white clothing, and it is generally acknowledged that the white/pink/orange balls don't keep their colour (become grey and scuffed) through the 90 overs. This has been a perennial problem in ODIs, although apparently the pink balls last reasonably well. And our standards of tv coverage are much higher today than they were back then. The length of time a ball will remain visible is a technical issue - all I'm suggesting is there is more than one way to approach the problem.
Brett McKay
Guest
G'day Sheek You may or may not recall a column I wrote on this topic (among others) back in Feb last year, just after the pinks balls were trialled in a couple of Futures League games. Full article is at: http://www.theroar.com.au/2010/02/08/pink-balls-edible-white-ones-and-too-much-of-a-good-thing/ Anyway, to quote myself, this was what I said at the time about how the pink ball showed on footage of the games on telly: "We could see the ball, eventually, but it took longer than expected to pick it up than does a red or white ball. And if it’s difficult to pick up a pink ball on television – the whole motivation for the trial in the first place – then it’s hard to see how it can progress any further." So it was interesting to see that the pink ball popped back up in the news this week. By the way, It's worth your while checking out some of Vinay's comments left against that Feb 2010 column, it's fair to say he mightn't love (or didn't love) this as much as you think... (on a personal note, God I love coming across his comments now....)
sheek
Guest
Russ, Do we need to get so complicated, or technical? WSC played super tests back in 1978/79, & I don't recall too many complaints from the players then, or since. Today there's better lighting & better choice of coloured balls. So you would think the problems are less significant to overcome, not more.....
Russ
Guest
I'm of the opinion we are looking at this back to front. The two reasons you can't see a dark-red ball at night (or a scuffed white/orange/pink one) is the absence of ambient light, and that the generated light shines from above, so the fielders are often looking at the dark side of the ball. I'd like to see some experiments conducted with red-filtered lights and reflective plates situated outside the boundary rope. It ought to be possible to generate a large enough amount of ambient light to see the bottom of the ball, without irritating the spectators (the light would reflect over the player's heads, or come from behind them).
sheek
Guest
True...!
Happy Hooker
Guest
Sheek, Based on their decision-making in recent times, I'm not sure that Cricket Australia agreeing with you is necessarily something to crow about.
Rob McLean
Guest
I remember orange balls being used in McDonald's Cup matches being used in the late 80s. Why has it taken so long to complete the research on this?