The graphic image of a spent Peter Siddle willing himself to the line like a marathon runner on Monday afternoon will live long with those that watched it.
For those that did, it sets up a summer of cricket as something we should care about it. However, at 5:30PM on a Monday, a fraction of the audience that deserved to see it did so.
It’s not hyperbole to say Siddle’s efforts would have been elevated into the ‘never forgotten’ annals if it had been seen by more. It’s much less of a stretch to say that had it been on the telly at 7:30PM rather than 5:30PM it would have been, to use musical parlance, a crossover hit.
That is families sitting around the television, and non-cricket fans walking away saying, “How about that Siddle!” – we don’t know cricket but we know that boy was stuffed and he kept going. And we might watch it next time it’s on.
The incident tells two things. Firstly, Test cricket throws up these dramatic moments and they have more drama and cache attached than most moments that ODI or T20 throw up.
Secondly, the law of averages says that under the traditional timeline Test cricket follows, the majority of people will miss the majority of those moments that capture people’s hearts.
So far this summer we’ve had 10 days of Test cricket and, with a Saturday washed out, a regular nine-to-five worker who gets home at 6pm would have been able to see three of the days if they’d decided to spend their whole weekend in front of the TV and absolutely nothing of those other seven days.
While it gets better for fans in the next month, the fact that we only get regular prime-time free-to-air cricket when the less popular One Day Internationals come along would have marketers from non-cricket outposts scratching their heads.
Much is made of the possibility of night Test cricket, with the most commonly attached benefit being tied to television rights. True as it is that Test cricket becomes a much more valuable commodity, perhaps the greater long term effect would be in the concurrent effect of opening up the game to more eyes.
Luckily, the more dramatic moments tend towards the end of a day’s play, because there is a deadline that creates urgency – whether it be day or entire match – and drama brings eyes to television.
Obviously this is where the problems start as far as finding the right ball and preserving the traditions and nuances of the game. People throw around all sorts of ideas about different coloured balls, changing the ball for the ‘night’ session and the like – and nothing adequate can be found.
One of the problems is starting with the template of night Test cricket and that if you’re doing it, you’d cover the whole of primetime finishing up at 10-10:30PM.
Fantastic scenario but clearly the technology is not there to keep a white ball white or to make a red ball brighter. So do we keep bashing the head against the proverbial brick wall? If you go for the ultimate prize there will always be an argument or logistical reason against it.
So in the spirit of compromise let’s assume we’re stuck with a red ball. Tests suggests you can’t use these red balls in the full floodlit atmosphere but remember there actually is the ability to use floodlights if required in Test cricket at any time.
The ICC regulation states, “If in the opinion of the umpires, natural light is deteriorating to an unfit level, they shall authorize the ground authorities to use the available artificial lighting so that the match can continue in acceptable conditions.”
In Australia can you remember the last time this actually happened? It may well have, but it doesn’t happen often.
Which gives us an answer in itself. It’s not rocket science but when we hit 6PM in daylight saving Australia, we still have brilliant sunshine, we don’t need lights like you may on dank days in an English summer.
Then think last night when you stepped outside at 7pm was the light failing? The reality is it starts to get hazy from about 7:15PM onwards.
So just say we played until 7:15 in this natural light, which gives us an hour and 15 minutes more that Tests would be opened up the majority of the population.
Then take into account the ICC regulations that allow for artificial light in Tests and think about the possibility of stretching it out another half an hour –something that seems perfectly acceptable under current regulations without changing the ball or the playing conditions.
Could you push it out to 8PM, and then imagine a whole last session played after people got home from work or, even better, people could attend form work. Imagine a scenario where every day of a Test cricket season allowed the whole population to be engaged.
Would the red ball be as visible under lights as 8PM as it is at the start of the day? No, but that’s the beauty of it, good Test cricket has twists and turns, the slightly darker and uncertain period provides all new avenues for them to occur and in front of the largest audience possible.
Without any major change to the spirit of regulations, a day’s play could run from 12:45 to 7:45, with the public the winners. It not ‘night cricket’ as we know it but it achieves a bunch of outcomes that aren’t attained right now.
This week it’s brought in to sharper focus. If the outcome of the Adelaide Test had instead happened in Perth, the vast majority of the viewing nation could have been watching Siddle doubling over and then getting off the canvas to knock over Kleinveldt in their armchairsat 7:30PM. That viewing public would never have forgotten it, and non-cricket fans would have been talking about it too.
While the Perth Test allows the eastern seaboard to enjoy some cricket when they get home, those viewers could also imagine how much more connected to cricket they’d feel if things could be like this for every Test (well, at least until Queensland rethinks on daylight savings).
A compromise on twilight cricket may seem like the watered down version of the end goal, but for the sake of the public it could lift Test cricket back where it belongs with the Australian summer, allowing the fabric of the game to maintain the status quo.
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