Australia will play pink ball Test matches against South Africa and Pakistan respectively in the upcoming Australian summer. Matches have been scheduled in Adelaide and Brisbane. Greg Chappell, the former Australian captain thinks current players should play more day-night Test matches.
Some Australian players expressed their concern about the visibility of the pink ball during the inaugural day-night match played against New Zealand in Adelaide last November. A pink ball with black stitching – a variant to the white and green stitching used in Adelaide – was trialled during the two four-day matches between Australia A and India A in Brisbane recently.
“You have got two choices – you can sit there and complain about it and rail against the innovations. Or you can adapt and get better at it and make it work. While pink ball cricket is a bit of a challenge for the players, it is something they have to adjust to,” said Chappell.
“There are great challenges for people to get to Test cricket during the day. If Test cricket doesn’t meet the public where the demand is, then the game suffers,” he added.
Chappell, Cricket Australia’s national talent manager, said current players should take note of World Series Cricket in the late 1970s, which revolutionised cricket with its coloured clothing and day-night matches.
“One of the first day-night games I played was at Waverley Park in Melbourne, and the lights seemed to be a couple of suburbs away. Out in the middle of the ground, it still seemed dark to me. You would have struggled to read a book under the lights in that game, which were nowhere near the standard of modern lights,” told Chappell.