With a full round of day-night Sheffield Shield cricket starting on Monday, the debate surrounding day-night Test cricket has ignited once again.
In the red corner are the traditionalists who think Test cricket is best left the way it is, played during the day.
In the blue (or, perhaps more appropriately, the pink) corner are those who feel that cricket has to do everything it can to appeal to a wider audience and increase viewership.
It is no secret that for many years now Australian cricket’s key media stakeholders, Channel Nine, have been pushing for day-night Test cricket.
The commercial benefits are obvious – viewing numbers are higher at night which means greater advertising revenue and for Cricket Australia, night cricket will hopefully lead to improved crowd attendance figures.
Channel Nine claims that the proof is in the pudding with the Perth Test, which is effectively a day-nighter on the lucrative east coast due to time zone differences, regularly attracting some of the highest television ratings of the summer.
Higher viewership and more advertising revenue means Cricket Australia will not only benefit from increased gate takings but they can charge more for the broadcast rights – a win from both ends, so to speak.
It is no secret that in non-Ashes summers the first couple of Test matches of the summer attract disappointing crowd figures– the Gabba Test that traditionally opens the summer springs to mind.
This is primarily due to the fact that the Test is normally played in the last week of November. The vast majority of people have work and they can’t afford to spend over a hundred dollars at the cricket and potentially lose a day’s worth of wages.
The hope is that cricket after work will appeal to many fans of Test cricket and even if the stadiums are near empty at start of play at 2:00pm, they will duly fill up in the subsequent hours.
But will people really be willing to fork out money to watch a couple of hours of cricket after a tough day at work?
Cricket Australia is dreaming if they think people will be willing to pay for a full priced ticket for less than half a day’s play when they could just as easily retreat to the couch and enjoy the remainder of play on TV.
If Cricket Australia goes down the path of day-night Tests, they must consider a discounted ticket similar to the ‘After 5pm’ ticket offered at the Australian Open tennis. This will provide a greater incentive to fans to attend the match and not watch it on TV.
Potential spectators in Brisbane are not the only people unable to watch a day’s cricket in late November due to work commitments. The rest of the country is also at work or school during this time and they are unable to watch the match.
The Perth Test is a different matter; workers can finish work at 5 and get home to watch the final two to three hours of play.
But can we really sacrifice one of the most sacred aspects of cricket be changed just to increase TV viewership and crowd attendance?
It’s no secret that Test cricket is struggling to maintain support around the world. The first two Tests in South Africa have been dreadfully attended and Tests in Australia not featuring India, England or South Africa are typically poorly attended.
While TV numbers will rise if day-night Tests are played, cricket will be losing something that makes it great.
Many fans admit that Test cricket is their favourite form of the game, but it is just not accessible enough. They want to attend more days and watch more on TV but they just can’t do it. This idea provides them with an avenue to do so.
This is especially important in nations in which Test cricket is struggling: South Africa, New Zealand, the West Indies, the list goes on. Growing Test cricket can only be good for the game; administrators just have to be careful how they do it.
Thankfully one aspect of Test Cricket which administrators recognise is non-negotiable is the white uniforms, which raises a major issue for day-night Test cricket. A red ball is too dark to be seen at night, while a white ball will be impossible to see against the backdrop of white uniforms.
Following failed experiments with orange and yellow balls in the 1990s, the current round of day-night Sheffield Shield fixtures is being payed with a pink ball.
Years of research have been put into designing this ball but there are still a number of concerns. The problem is that they are using a white ball, similar to the one used in a One Day International, and dying it pink.
Scientists haven’t been able to create a white ball that can last 50 overs, let alone the 80 required in Test cricket. If a ball can’t survive for 50 overs, how is a very similar ball meant to survive 80?
Early reports out of the Shield matches are that the new pink ball is actually worse for spectators than a red or white ball. It’s hard to watch a game of cricket if you can’t see the ball.
Additionally, in Futures League matches and trials played in England there have again been concerns raised about the pink ball fading and losing its colour.
On top of this, batsmen have complained that the ball emits a tail in the period before it begins to fade. So rather than seeing one pink circle moving through the air, batsmen are seeing something that almost resembles a comet.
This was not a concern in the Shield matches, as batsmen could see the ball during both day and night. What was a concern was what happened to the balls after they lost their shine.
South Australian Michael Klinger revealed that the softening pink balls were behaving much like tennis balls as they came off the bat.
The softer ball was not flying off the bat like a hard red cherry would. Instead, the ball was absorbing much of the impact of the shot, much like a tennis ball absorbs the impact of a backhand as it comes off the racquet.
This makes run scoring very difficult. South Australia scored just 52 runs in the middle session on Monday, well below typical levels.
During training over the past week, a number of players from numerous Shield teams complained that they could not see the white seam against the pink ball, making it very difficult for them to judge the delivery.
Some might argue that the batsmen just need to get on with it and deal with an inability to see the seam, but not being able to see the seam raises potential safety concerns and it makes it very difficult for the batsmen.
It might not seem like such a big deal, but when facing a Mitchell Johnson 150km/h thunderbolt, being able to see the seam plays a huge role in how the batsman will play the delivery.
Queensland’s Chris Lynn confirmed these concerns after his innings on Monday, revealing that the seam was very difficult to pick up as the ball got older and the seam darkened.
He did, however, highlight that he had trained just once with the pink balls and that he hopes to be able to pick up the seam better as he practices and plays more with the pink ball.
And he will get plenty more practice, with twoday-night matches scheduled to be played by each team in next summer’s Sheffield Shield competition.
Apart from the difficulties associated with the softening of the ball and the seam, the pink balls seemed to hold up well to the demands of first-class cricket and survived for the full 80 overs.
There’s one final issue with the pink cricket ball– Chris Rogers, who is colour blind, has revealed that if cricket ever adopts day-night Test matches he will not be able to play as he can’t see the ball.
It seems unfair that a player is forced to miss out on playing in the pinnacle of cricket just because the rules have been changed to maximise TV exposure.
What happens if the next best thing since Sir Donald Bradman comes along in Sheffield Shield cricket but he’s colour blind? The public outrage would be unprecedented.
Admittedly this is an extreme situation, but we already have one Test player unable to play day-night Test cricket so it is entirely possible that we will have another.
One major unknown surrounding day-night Test cricket is the pitch – arguably the most important contributing factor to the way a cricket match is played.
I can hear the comments already: “But they’ve been using pitches in day-night ODIs and T20 matches for years, how can you not know how a pitch will play?”
The difference is that the pitches prepared for the shorter forms of the game are typically flat decks that are designed to promote batting and run scoring.
These pitches are extremely different to the pitches used in Test cricket. We are not yet sure how a traditionally juicy, bouncy Gabba pitch will react to the different playing conditions present at night.
The impact of dew on the pitch is also a great unknown. The ball can bounce in any direction when bouncing on a wet pitch and it may do the same thing when the pitch becomes covered by dew.
This isn’t so much of an issue in Australia, where low humidity means there generally isn’t so much dew, but in the subcontinent it’s another matter.
The ICC has publicly stated that after analysing the success of trials in Australia and a possible Test match in November 2015 they will consider expanding day-night Test cricket to other areas of the world.
If day-night Tests are played in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, the dew could have a significant impact.
Cricket Australia claims that initial plans for day-night Test cricket in Australia only centre around the early Tests of the season, namely Brisbane, Adelaide and Hobart.
Perth will never be touched because it is already perfect for the heavily populated east coast, while Melbourne and Sydney are safe for now.
But if the day-night Tests are successful, combined with improved viewing times for those in other areas of the world, Melbourne and Sydney could well be on the agenda.
Sports administrators are renowned for trying to milk as much money out of concepts as possible, often to the detriment of the sport. I fear this may be the case with day-night Test cricket.
Even if administrators do decide to go ahead with day-night Test cricket, there are a number of hurdles that they must overcome.
Mainly the pink cricket ball.
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