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Pink acid test as 5-day game set for evening debut
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Whether the catalyst for a full-scale revolution or a more gentle evolution, the inaugural day-night test between Australia and New Zealand should lead to irrevocable change for cricket’s oldest and most hallowed format.
Traditionalists have decried the concept and players on both teams have concerns about the fitness of the pink ball to be used in the match at Adelaide Oval.
Some fingers will inevitably be crossed when the lights flood down at the venue, where some of cricket’s most powerful officials will be among a crowd of some 40,000 people during the day’s first play.
However, like anxious parents fussing over their child on a school morning before the class photo, Australia’s cricket board has gone to great lengths to ensure the match puts on its best face for the cameras.
Over seven painstaking years have been devoted to the development and testing of Kookaburra’s pink ball but the match has still seemingly arrived in a hurry.
The concept has had top-level endorsement from the International Cricket Council since 2012, but Cricket Australia led by chief executive James Sutherland has been its most steadfast champion for over a decade.
The Adelaide Oval, recently redeveloped into an ultra-modern stadium, has been hand-picked to host the match and appears an inspired choice as both a reliable tourist magnet and being resistant to the dew that plagues other venues at night and can play havoc with the behavior of a ball.
‘Ashes-style’ crowds are expected at the 53,500-capacity ground through the opening days and the weekend, with many curious visitors intrigued by the novelty factor of seeing players in traditional whites grapple with a pink ball.
The performance of the ball, and the success of test cricket under floodlights, will be closely watched.
The first day-night match in 138 years of tests is one of cricket’s rare innovations, and follows the advent of one-day internationals in the 1970s and the glitzy Twenty20 format in the last decade.
Australia holds a 1-0 lead in the series, after winning by 208 runs in Brisbane.
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