Day-night Test matches are gradually gaining momentum as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has also reportedly shown interest in hosting Australia next year. Cricket Australia Chief Executive Officer James Sutherland stated that the Indian board officials have already started talking about a possible day-night Test match in their 2017 tour.
Australia and New Zealand played the first day-night Test match in Adelaide Oval, which received good response last year. Due to such positive response, some cricket boards are warming up to the idea of playing Test cricket under floodlights. Pakistan have also agreed to play Australia in a pink-ball Test in December, and the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is also lining up a possible clash against the West Indies. One could also see Ashes -- Australia vs England -- being played under lights.
India are not to be left far behind as New Zealand will become the first team to play a day-night Test in India. The cash-rich cricket board, earlier, stated that they are ready to host the first ever day-night Test match in India when New Zealand come over for their tour, later this year.
And it just seems to be a matter of time that the two superpowers of world cricket -- India and Australia – will fight it out in day-night Tests as well. Talks have already begun, confirm Sutherland.
"I think there's certainly some positive signals coming out of India and other parts of the world (regarding day-night Tests). Indicatively they've started to talking to us about the prospect of playing a day-night Test match against Australia when Australia tours in February and March of next year.That's just a pretty strong indicator of where things are at," Cricket Australia quoted Sutherland as saying on Big Sports Breakfast radio.
"When you look at the big picture it's probably not surprising because day-night Test cricket is just a no-brainer really, giving more opportunities for fans to get along to the cricket and watch it on TV."
Playing a regular day-Test match is completely different as compared to cricket during a day-night game as the behaviour of the pitch might also change under light. Add to it, the dew factor. Hence, the BCCI must consider a number of factors before they zoom-in for the final venue.
The board will be using pink ball during day-night Test matches in the Duleep trophy, which could give us a few pointers ahead of the international fixtures.
