Thaindian News

Melbourne, Jan 26 (ANI): Former Australia fast bowler Rodney Hogg has labeled Cricket Australia’s (CA) proposed plan to introduce day-night Test cricket as “a waste of time”.

Hogg’s comment comes as CA intensified their campaign to play day-night matches, and confirmed that they will trial the use of a pink ball during a three-day match at Adelaide Oval next week to be played as a day-night fixture.

“It won’t survive,” Fox Sports quoted Hogg, as saying.

“In England, there’s a period of about four weeks of the year where you can play day-night cricket. But there’s dew at night time over there (and) it won’t work because of the dew in South Africa. It won’t work in England, it won’t work anywhere. It’s a waste of time,” he added.

The experiment at the second-tier Futures League match between South Australia and Western Australia starting on Tuesday will be used to assess the feasibility of fundamentally changing the conditions for Test cricket.

The trial will also be used to test the visibility of the ball for both players and spectators under both daylight and the Adelaide Oval’s floodlights at night, and to monitor the ball’s discolouration.

The development of a durable coloured ball is seen as a crucial step in the introduction of day-night Tests and a successful trial of the pink ball would fast-track day-night cricket at a higher level.

CA chief executive James Sutherland has said that day-night Tests would not be introduced without testing conditions at a lower level.

“You’re not going to just launch into Test cricket at night without having some really serious trials,” Sutherland said.

“This is really the next step for us to really explore whether it is viable to play Test cricket at night or not,” he added. (ANI)