Day/Night Test Matches

[IanG]

^Interesting ideas - I like it. Cricket was willing to employ military technology to find if there are inside edges or not (Hotspot), so why not military technology to 'paint' the ball?

Well during World Series Cricket they use to just paint the balls white, tossed them back to the umpires and kept playing.

 

[War]

It sounds more left field than it really is - but why not 'paint' the traditional red ball using ball-tracking lasers? If it's possible to track and destroy ballistic missiles using lasers, then surely illuminating a cricket ball shouldn't be too hard? Or if it is too hard, then why not simply fit powerful LED lights to the spidercam apparatus and suspend them directly above the pitch?

Point is, I don't think the ball should be the limiting factor here.

I think we all know that cricket is pretty second rate when it comes to innovation and re-inventing itself. It took Packer and Modi to induce any sort of major changes at all, and I think we need someone similar now to help make day/night Tests a successful reality.

Here's what I'd like to see on a trial run:
- West Indies invited to Australia for three Tests in November
- Play 3 x T20Is the weekend before to drum up interest
- Marketing and rule changes focus on gladiatorial aspect of batsmen vs fast bowlers: no helmets, unlimited bouncers, eight ball overs, "natural" ball-tampering (ie no bottle caps but otherwise go nuts), pitches left to bake during the day so they're nice and quick for night-time with a bit of variable bounce. It's all about Roach, Edwards, Taylor, Cummins, Pattinson etc.
- Each match starts 7pm either Thu or Fri night, finishes midnight each night, minimum 75 overs per day. If you've got a result pitch, this should be pretty workable. Let's introduce 60s rule for batsmen to get to the crease and a run penalty for being behind the over rate as well. Batsmen who hold up the game get docked runs.
- Provide detailed stats/info over stadium WI-FI: ball speed, deviation, live feeds and replays from cameras etc. Let people bring their $20 tablets along and analyse the game live.
- During the day before the match? International players coach the youngsters, maybe even play a couple of 10-over friendlies with them.

Don't know anything about military technology but interesting idea's all-round here for sure. Although i dont think you would get any batsman to face such fast-bowling without a helmet.

 

[sifter132]

Dean Jones was talking in his column today about ball technology and perhaps moving on from the twine and cork core into some golf ball technology. He thinks balls are way behind bats when it comes to improved performance, and that white balls aren't getting the love because red balls are the ones most commonly purchased, therefore there isn't much financial incentive to make a better white ball.
Getting a handle on bigger bats

 

[IanG]

Take your pick

 

[ferg512]

Thought I'd revive this thread when I read this article

New Zealand Cricket News: NZC 'very excited' by prospect of day-night Tests | ESPN Cricinfo

I may be wrong on this but do Indian fans watch many games not involving India? I know you guys watch the Ashes and probably SA-Eng and SA-Aus series but I think NZC is being very optimistic thinking that through day-night tests Indians will have their eyes glued to a series between Australia and New Zealand. I thought it was kind of how we are with rugby not that many people in New Zealand will watch rugby that doesn't involve the All Blacks or any of our provincial sides (I know I don't), would be interesting to hear some Indian fans opinion.

I also read in the comments of that article that tests here would start in India at 5am and they would only be pushing that back a few hours so I really am struggling to see how this makes any sense.

 

[vaibhavtewatia]

I may be wrong on this but do Indian fans watch many games not involving India?

Not really. Most of them hardly care

I also read in the comments of that article that tests here would start in India at 5am and they would only be pushing that back a few hours so I really am struggling to see how this makes any sense.

Just may be that this is one of the reason. Tests in Australia except Perth start at 5 in the morning and end at 1 in the afternoon. The situation is far worse when in New Zealand, quite sure they start at around 4 am here. This makes match time completely concurrent with the school/college/work hours.
But this isn't something you can do much about.
A day night test if it happens, would mean that the start of the match is pushed by roughly 4-5 hours, which is likely to bring more TV audience in not only from new zealand, but from other nations too, even though it might be marginal.
Quite sure the idea is not only too increase viewership.

Personally, I like to follow all the matches played in Aus/Nzl ( or should I say I liked to ). Definitely looking forward to it

 

[Gaurav_7]

Tbh, nowadays I watch matches which do not involve India. That's only me maybe. All the hit and giggle stuff has been way too much for me personally and that's why I can't watch more.

I love to watch test matches especially with teams like Aus, NZ, Eng playing. So maybe it can prove to be a good decision..

 

[zeustrojanstark]

I am an Indian and i prefer watching test match irrespective of the nation but will surely watch any format if the MIGHTY Australians take the field.

Offlate cricket has become a commercial way to earn money for the boards and other internal/external organisations involved. Its far from being just a sport. I understand and we all saw these happening some years before but i am not impressed with this Day/Night test concept. Modify the game, do anything please leave Test Cricket. Modify T20, modify ODI etc but please, Test is a legacy and it is wrong to modify it. Let tests be played the way it was, it is played.

 

[SaiSrini]

Thought I'd revive this thread when I read this article

New Zealand Cricket News: NZC 'very excited' by prospect of day-night Tests | ESPN Cricinfo

I may be wrong on this but do Indian fans watch many games not involving India? I know you guys watch the Ashes and probably SA-Eng and SA-Aus series but I think NZC is being very optimistic thinking that through day-night tests Indians will have their eyes glued to a series between Australia and New Zealand. I thought it was kind of how we are with rugby not that many people in New Zealand will watch rugby that doesn't involve the All Blacks or any of our provincial sides (I know I don't), would be interesting to hear some Indian fans opinion.

I also read in the comments of that article that tests here would start in India at 5am and they would only be pushing that back a few hours so I really am struggling to see how this makes any sense.

Not many Indian fans watch games not involving India. And even more so, if it involves teams like NZ who don't attract much crowds (no offence to them; but here in India, NZ isn't considered a very attractive team to watch).

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I am an Indian and i prefer watching test match irrespective of the nation but will surely watch any format if the MIGHTY Australians take the field.

Offlate cricket has become a commercial way to earn money for the boards and other internal/external organisations involved. Its far from being just a sport. I understand and we all saw these happening some years before but i am not impressed with this Day/Night test concept. Modify the game, do anything please leave Test Cricket. Modify T20, modify ODI etc but please, Test is a legacy and it is wrong to modify it. Let tests be played the way it was, it is played.

Change is something that should be permanent. If you want test cricket to survive for longer periods and keep its engine rolling, changes should be thought of. I would personally like to see day/night tests happening as it can bring in more crowds and audience for the game

I would even want to see teams using colored clothing when playing day/night test matches.

 

[sifter132]

I think the solution is that every nation has to keep a spot for an Indian or two in their XI, that way the TV ratings in India will go up and we all get richer

 

[Bluey Zarsoff]

When day/night 50 over cricket was first proposed people thought it was a crazy idea but soon came to embrace it. Let's see if the Shield day/night matches go okay before getting too carried away though.

 

[Owzat]

Assuming most are talking about watching the matches on TV as opposed to flying round the world to watch, TV doesn't have to broadcast it live. In fact it would be better if you could just tune into a channel and once you do the cricket/whatever starts.

So taking out the armchair factor, is there a lot of gain to day/night cricket? I'm assuming we will ignore the environmental factor of powering the stadium needlessly with floodlights etc, and assume all attending are on local time hours ie sleep at night, wake during the day according to the host country.

So what do you gain? If we're talking 2pm-10.30pm what do you gain? The argument about people needing to travel or take time off work doesn't really work, 9-5pm doesn't end at 2pm anyway and you'd still need to travel, if you do, either way. You could do a half day, but might as well take a whole day, I've yet to do a day of Test cricket that didn't involve early morning to late evening so most of the waking day ie it's basically a long haul.

So we could argue atmosphere, well it isn't football and never will be. The artificial atmosphere of the laughable IPL would be hard to mimick in Tests anyway, and is the atmosphere TRULY any better for day night ODIs than day ODIs?!?!?!?

Nah, can't see a gain, not one that is worth breaking with tradition. Instead of focusing on the time of Tests, maybe they should focus more on the nature and structure of Tests ie get Ireland and the non-Test nations into tiers/Tests.

It isn't really about tradition, it seems to be changing something for the sake of it and trying to make it sound like it's a change for the better when it has no obvious merits or it would have been done a long time ago. I think someone just sees it as a dying format and is trying to make radical changes.

The one daft thing about day-night Tests has become very obvious, KIDS. If we want to get kids into cricket then I'd suggest late finishes would make parents unwilling to send young kids to watch it.

Could be designed to 'save' Tests and have exactly the opposite effect. A better move would be free to air TV coverage (again), the Olympics were on TV and suddenly every kid wants to win a gold medal. Only highlights are currently available in England if you don't sell your soul to s*y.

But it's all about the money, assuming the reduced exposure doesn't decrease the amount of future generations going to and watching it on TV................... Put Tests on late afternoon and night and see if that doesn't kill it off for good, I may be wrong but it is food for thought

 

[Bluey Zarsoff]

Cricket has nothing to lose trying new things that might very well improve it. What's the worst that can happen if day/night tests are trialled and don't work out? They just get discarded like 8 ball overs and a few other things along the way.

 

[vorgaphe]

Is nothing sacred anymore? Test cricket has always been played by men in white and with a red ball. This is the purest and most sacred form of cricket and long may it remain this way. The fact that we lose time and get draws is all part of the quirky game that is test cricket. I mean what next? Cheerleaders in test cricket? Double sided bats? 6 day matches? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

[Bluey Zarsoff]

Is nothing sacred anymore? Test cricket has always been played by men in white and with a red ball. This is the purest and most sacred form of cricket and long may it remain this way. The fact that we lose time and get draws is all part of the quirky game that is test cricket. I mean what next? Cheerleaders in test cricket? Double sided bats? 6 day matches? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

It wasn't that long ago that players had to wear an all-white uniform at the Wimbledon tennis championships. Even lawn bowlers are now allowed to wear coloured uniforms.

This isn't even about uniforms or the duration of the game. It's about when the game is played.