It seems to me that cricket is a sport which is very adaptable to new ideas. We have seen many changes in cricket over the years, the main being the rise of the two other formats of the game. It is a sport which embraces technology, and seems way advanced of sports such as football which allow controversy to take place despite calls for help.
The ICC added rules such as power play, free hit for no balls and even toyed with the super sub rule over the last ten years. This all shows that they embrace change. This is one area where the ICC should be credited for keeping the sport fresh. The sport in general seems to promote innovation, and the players have also shown this ability. Over the last few years we have seen changes to batting play (switch hit, dil scoop) and new innovative ways of fielding and bowling have also been implemented.
Despite all these changes the ICC have never really changed much about test cricket. They have in a way provided the purists to keep their form of the game whilst changing the other formats keeping people who embrace change rather happy also. It is unknown if many of these purists will dislike the idea of day/night test cricket, only time will tell on this. This could be as simple as people not liking change. Things such as lunch probably would be scrapped in this new type of test cricket, this is something that not everyone will like.
I for one agree with the new idea in principle for day/night test cricket, but believe it has to be done rightly. Is the pink ball the right ball to play with? According to Samit Patel who has played in the trial of day/night test cricket it isn't the right ball. He states that the pink ball does nothing in the day, but as soon as the lights came on the ball did too much. If this is true this could give a team an unfair advantage.
Another disadvantage of this is the due factor, especially in Asia. The team bowling under lights may struggle to field properly and the ball could slip from their hands. In particular if you watch Dhoni, when playing a day/night ODI in Asia he will always bowl first if he wins the toss. This could mean that a team bats terribly in the evening and improve because of due in the night, only because of the due factor.
The advantage of having day/night tests could mean more great test cricket. Can you imagine the first test at Sofia Gardens where Monty Panesar and James Anderson blocked out the match versus Australia under lights? The atmosphere was already very good, it would have been even better. Another advantage of having this is that a whole new audience will watch test cricket. The kids who may not be into test cricket may actually sit and watch because their dad is home from work and watching.
I am pretty sure that advertisers and players would prefer the new timings as well, giving them more tv time. In my opinion it could work, and the benefits definitely out way the negatives of this, but they ICC should work on finding the right ball and a proper solution to the due factor. Why not try having the red ball during the day part of the game and use the white ball in the night? This probably would mess up a teams bowling plan as many teams believe that certain players bowl better with the white ball and not the red.
I wonder if anyone is really in favour of day/night tests or really against, I would love to know in the comments section.
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