Test cricket, the most staid form of perhaps the most conservative game of all, sets off on a very cheeky single on Friday. The third Test between Australia and New Zealand will start not at the traditional time of 10.30am, but at 2pm, with play ending (under lights) at 9pm. Lunch will not be taken. The players will adjourn for dinner between the second and third sessions, with tea to be taken between the first and second sessions. And instead of the traditional "cherry" Kookaburra, bowlers will use a pink ball to try to dislodge batsmen.
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Cricket Australia hopes this first ever day-night Test match will allow more people to come to the ground direct from work or school to watch the last few hours of play, or take in the action on their television sets in prime viewing time. Behind the universal desire for more bums on seats, Cricket Australia is banking heavily on this repackaging exercise saving what is the purest form of cricket, but which is increasingly shunned by fans. Only Ashes contests between Australia and England now draw decent crowds.
The duration of matches (five days) in an era when people hanker for more immediate forms of gratification is one reason why Test cricket has declined in popularity. The other, more obvious, explanation is the growing popularity of one-day and Twenty20 matches. Here the hits are bigger, the action more intense, and the stars more colourful literally and figuratively. And in an era where people have little patience with indeterminate outcomes, limited overs game always end with a result.
At its best, the drama and excitement of Test match cricket equals anything else on offer in team sports – although proper appreciation of that requires spectator dedication and perseverance that newcomers to the game frequently find irksome. On its off days – and the first two five-day contests between Australia and New Zealand have been prime examples – Test cricket could be marketed as an effective insomnia cure. Unfortunately, the bad days increasingly outnumber the better ones – a trend not helped by the inability of curators to prepare decent wickets.
That administrators have left it this long to tart up Test cricket is surprising. World Series baseball, perhaps the nearest sporting equivalent, has been played exclusively under lights since 1987. Likewise the Indian Premier League, the world's foremost Twenty20 cricket competition. The day-night Tests staged by the breakaway World Series Cricket competition of the late 1970s drew good crowds and TV audiences, and were regarded as exciting contests.
Whether day-night Tests can generate similar excitement (and viewing numbers) is moot, however. The pink ball is said not to offer the fast bowlers much assistance, which could well cause viewers to switch to more pleasing forms of entertainment – of which there are now a multitude.
Cricket Australia is determined to ensure the game is a success, as it should. Test matches are intrinsic to the game, and keeping them relevant must remain a key objective of administrators.
