Cricket Australia (CA) is willing to champion the cause of four-day Test matches while forecasting two day-night Tests on future domestic calendars.
CA’s chief executive James Sutherland says early feedback from the inaugural day-night Test between Australia and New Zealand in Adelaide is “glowing”.
He believes all future Adelaide Test matches could be day-nighters, adding that Brisbane is also a “good option” for the concept.
CA has held discussions with Pakistan hierarchy, who tour Australia next summer, about playing the next day-night Test.
“We are really keen on, I guess, continuing this,” Sutherland told ABC radio on Saturday.
“Right place, right time, right conditions of course. But it’s certainly something we would like to see in the future.”
Australia will play three Tests each against Pakistan and South Africa next summer.
Sutherland said approval from other national cricket boards was needed before pursuing further day-night Tests.
“Perhaps England, India and others may be more conservative on this – time will tell,” he said.
Sutherland also said he was willing to champion the concept of four-day Test matches, played from Thursday to Sunday.
“I really like the idea of giving fans certainty about the schedule and the regularity,” he said.
“I think it’s a discussion that needs to continue on.
“Certainly, I am very supportive of the idea and pursuing that a little bit further. And the extent to which the ICC might allow that is something that I guess remains to be seen.”
Sutherland said daily playing hours could be extended to cater for four-day Tests and result in only about 40 overs being lost from the current five-day format.
“You could play a slightly longer day; you could speed up the overs a little bit,” he said.
Sutherland suggested four-day Tests could be tied to other innovations including a world Test championship.
“Personally, I like it actually being connected to some other reforms around the relevance of Test cricket – perhaps as a Test championship where the result becomes even more important.
“I have heard that argument about perhaps no draws but also extra points maybe for a win – you see in soccer three points for a win, one point for a draw, that sort of thing is part of a league championship (and) adds extra relevance to that result and perhaps gets people to play differently.
“The other thing is pitches, pitches being prepared for a four-day game rather than necessarily a five-day game.
“And I think that is a big, big thing. That balance between bat and ball is really important and we haven’t seen that balance in the last two Test matches here.”
Mr Bean
Guest
According to the future tour program it's 4. http://www.icc-cricket.com/about/305/icc-ftp-future-tours-program/future-tours-programme-ftp Although I would t be surprised if the changed some things around
Paul D
Roar Guru
I thought Sutherland's interview with Whateley was fantastic, very interesting. Was listening to it driving back down from Gympie on Saturday in the car. Hopefully Sutherland and CA can wrangle visiting boards and ensure at the least that Adelaide remains a day night fixture, they will only get better at nailing the conditions and the ball going forward. Great step for cricket.
Bakkies
Guest
Sutherland can stick the four day test idea where the sun don't shine.
Brett McKay
Expert
It will only be 3 v South Africa, Mr B, plus 3 v Pakistan. 6 in all again, like this summer..
Mr Bean
Guest
From memory we're play 4 tests against South Africa next year and 3 against Pakistan, however Pakistan get Boxing Day/New Year
Mr Bean
Guest
From memory we're play 4 tests against South Africa next year
davros
Guest
look it doesn't really matter if players cant see the pink ball properly ...we can see it on tv and that's all that really matters ....keeping channel nine happy and sutherlands obsessive quest to milk every last drop of money he can out of the game is all that really counts !
cotts
Roar Rookie
I am waiting to see feedback on one particular issue - interstate visitors. A group of us have been travelling to one, sometimes two, interstate Tests each summer for almost a decade. (Canberra doesn't have that many). We had been planning to go to Adelaide this year until we considered the logistics of the day/night Test. For economic, and aesthetic, reasons we usually stay at Glenelg. Our concerns centred around selfish considerations like missing the fine dining in Adelaide and perhaps difficulty in getting back to our lodgings safely before midnight. It will be interesting to see what issues, if any, the locals experienced. Notwithstanding my concerns, it's terrific to see a contest between bat and ball again. Who said drop-in pitches can't be tailored to the experience?
My2cents
Guest
I have no issues with teams like India doctoring their wickets to suit the home team. There is an easy fix. Learn to pick a team for all conditions. Don't take a pace heavy attack and batsmen who can't play spin to India. It's not really that hard
Ray
Guest
If ~10% of men are affected by colour blindness, then playing with the pink ball under lights may be extremely unfair for some cricketers. It looked like Steve Smith didn't see the ball that well last night when fielding in the slips, but coped the night before with a sightscreen background. Back Rodgers believes that he wouldn't have coped. I wouldn't want to see 10% of players disenfranchised by playing at night. Also, looking to a fix for test cricket by playing at night, ignores the main issue of test cricket in the recent past and that is the very poor preparation of the wickets. Perth was a very poor wicket biased too much to batting, and maybe to ensure the game went the full 5 days. England and India keep doctoring their wickets to suit the home teams and rationalise this to themselves that this is smart cricket.