Sutherland said Thursday it was “a bit late” to re-schedule the Adelaide test as a day match and the move to day-night matches was necessary to reinvigorate test cricket.
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The white kit, the red new ball, not to mention the breaks for lunch and tea before light stops play.
And leg-spin legend Warne, who claimed 708 wickets in 145 Tests, insists it is now open season on the selection front as new captain Steve Smith and coach Darren Lehmann mull over the task of moving Australia forward – with the likes of Matthew Wade and Usman Khawaja tipped to earn recalls.
Cricket Australia still insist pink-ball Test will go ahead. “Sometimes it’s hard for players to understand that, but sometimes you’ve got to see the bigger picture for the good of Test cricket”, the batting great added. “I found it quite hard to tell when the bowler was sort of trying to swing it a certain way, or sometimes with the spinners, it was a bit hard to pick up”.
But overall he thought the pink balls “played quite well”.
Harris admitted the pink ball didn’t hold up well on trial in New Zealand’s one-day tour match romp over Prime Minister’s XI last week, albeit on an abrasive Canberra pitch. “But it is Test cricket now, not one-day cricket, so we have three huge Tests we have to be up to and hopefully we can come out on top”.
“That’s the thing here, we’ve been through a really rigorous process in conjunction with particularly Kookaburra, and as Brett Elliott said earlier this week more work has gone into preparing this pink ball than any ball in the history of the game”.
“It looked like a pretty typical cricket ball after 70-odd overs”.
Several Australian players have voiced their opposition to the day-night venture, however the interests of the fan is what’s being prioritised by CA.
It is clear that these issues must be rendered a thing of the past before day-night tests can become a regular occurrence on the cricketing calendar.
Waugh said Joe Burns, uncapped Nic Maddinson and Ed Cowan were other batsman who might get considered.
The ICC believe that the ability for people to leave work and watch the day’s final two sessions either at the ground or on television will increase attendances and TV ratings, and thus the value of TV contracts too.
Pre-ticket sales for the Test have been as strong as what typically is experienced during an Ashes summer, with Sutherland suggesting Dyer’s comments would not carry any weight at this stage of the summer.
AFTER DARK: how does pink ball actually perform?
While Starc recognises that cricket-ball manufacturers will have improved the design and structure of the pink ball since then, a repeat of these issues will provide damning evidence against the use of the pink ball.
“I’d give them this summer to bed the team down and then I think the honeymoon period might be over”. These topics and questions deserve their own full articles, but there is a sense that day-night tests might just be a case of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.
But ex-Test quick Ryan Harris says it’s time players accepted the radical change.
CA are hopeful the contest between bat and ball is as fair as possible even when night sets in, however that remains the great unknown.
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“England would have been happy that they won but both teams did not really play that well in the Ashes”.
