The concept has significant support from one of the masterminds of World Series Cricket, US-based television supremo David Hill, who describes four-day Test matches as cricket’s chance to “fish where the fishes are”.
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Western Australia’s Whiteman scored 117 and stroked 16 boundaries against New Zealand at the WACA on Saturday.
The president of cricket’s governing body Sunday hailed the concept of day-night Test matches, days before Australia play New Zealand in the first-ever such match.
He said in the Herald Sun: “Some sort of Test championship, where every Test is for points, is something that’s important for the future development and attractiveness of Test cricket”.
“This match needs to be seen strictly as an experiment”.
He said the power of Twenty20 and one-day internationals couldn’t be ignored as cricket looked to spice up its test format.
Johnson played 73 Test matches for Australia and picked up 313 wickets.
“The players’ associations intend to be at the heart of representing those views back to CA and NZC (New Zealand Cricket), and FICA will also do that internationally where appropriate”.
Irish says while players should be given credit for allowing the Adelaide Test to go ahead, it should be seen as purely an experiment. The fact that players value it so highly is critical to its survival as a format around the world.
That said, both Mitchell Santner, who finished with four wickets, and Mark Craig, who got one, were too loose at times. Abbas, himself a former Pakistani batting great, said he had a good experience of day-night matches when he played for Australian tycoon Kerry Packer in the 1970s.
He found a few movement and toiled strongly all day. Attendances through the opening two Tests against the Black Caps have been poor, and the struggling West Indies are next up when this series is over.
The biggest issue still appears to be whether batsmen and fieldsmen can sight the pink ball clearly from dusk. “You have to accept it’s not going to play the same way as your red ball. They like watching World Cup finals if you’re always working towards who is the best Test team in the world, that can only help the game”.
No-one, incidentally, is saying that if the match in Adelaide is a success then Test cricket should make a wholesale switch to day-night timings.
There were at least seven ball changes through the second Test in Perth.
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That shapes as a good thing, for the traditional red ball has emerged as a growing problem this summer, with it regularly being knocked out of shape.
