Rahul Dravid is not the kind of a cricketer to indulge in talk without rationale. His education, cricketing experience and reading habits are evident when he discusses cricket or cricket administration. But at Canberra his suggestion of having day-night Test matches was made without proper homework. Theoretically everything looks possible. In practice certain things don't work.
That the stadiums have to be occupied in a spectator friendly game is an obvious fact. It's a dangerous trend to see Eden Gardens half filled and in a place like Mumbai, where every third person is a self-proclaimed cricket expert, hardly anyone turned up at the Wankhede Stadium for the Test match recently. Playing and discussing cricket is a pastime of Mumbaikars but they too are fed up with Test match cricket.
Is it the poor quality of pitches or the poor opposition, one doesn't know but it's only in the sub-continent that crowds stay away from Test cricket. Elsewhere Test matches are a great crowd puller. The tickets for Ashes are sold out well in advance.
Is day-night Test cricket the ideal solution? More than a decade ago the BCCI decided to have a five day-night Ranji Trophy final at Gwalior as an experiment. There were technical problems in every session which eventually forced the BCCI to abandon the idea.
The game started at 2-30 p.m. in perfect conditions. The pitch was placid and batsmen took advantage of it. At 6 in the evening when lights were on, playing conditions suddenly changed. Add to it there was dew on the ground. The ball began to wobble and bowlers had to bowl holding the ball with cross seam to control the swing.
Prodigious swing
The BCCI used a white Kookaburra ball which is not known to swing like the SG Test ball but here the ball was swinging prodigiously. Bowlers said the seam of the ball being flat, it created problem while gripping the ball in the second half of play.
The dew on the pitch caused the ball to skid. Though there was a change of ball after 40 overs (optional) and compulsory after 50 overs, the teams weren't comfortable. When the spinners were bowling well around the 50 over mark, the new ball would stop them from bowling.
Strategically it just didn't make sense. One remembers at least on five to six occasions batsmen were let off the hook when the ball was changed after 50 overs. Will this not be a big factor in a Test match when a batsman is struggling against spinners and new ball helps him escape from the tight situation?
The pink ball which is being experimented for the longer version is not only hard but it swings more than the Kookaburra ball. The success of a Test match shouldn't be subject to factors like misbehaving of balls and pitches. Moreover loss of time will be another factor.
Unless the authorities experiment day-night for longer duration matches, solutions can't be reached because except for England all the matches are played in the winter. The dew factor will vary from venue to venue. Pink balls haven't been used successfully in the longer version of the game.
Dravid also lamented the meaningless numbers of ODIs but surprisingly remained silent on the T20 tournaments perhaps because he is still part of the IPL.
If Test cricket has to survive, play less number of ODIs and T20. We also have to have the same match fee structure for a Test match player that IPL offers. Only then things will change.
Keywords: day/night Test, BCCI, ICC
Why not? Day-night test may bring more crowds since those going to the stadium have to take only half a day off instead of the full day as long as the test is engrossing.
This article shows author's lack of understanding of views put forth by Dravid. The author's reasoning about, Dravid not saying about 20-20 due to IPL is appalling. The reason Dravid does not want to talk much about 20 20 is in his speech itself, that he taking about how to bring spectators to games, why talk about 20-20 when it is doing good. Reducing the meaningless one days and tuning the test cricket is the best way forward.
Also author made critical comments about lack of home work. Author should have taken article as if he is analyzing the feasibility of the day night test rather than making critical comment about lack of home work. This way author could have taken the article as an extension to Dravid's speech. The point is that Dravid is finding ways to get Test cricket watched by more people. Obviously, author had a point to prove about the feasibility of day night cricket and he took it bit offensive side, rather than bat along.
" but surprisingly remained silent on the T20 tournaments perhaps
because he is still part of the IPL."
Mr.Waingaonkar I have great respect for you as a true grassroots Indian
cricket expert but this comment is disappointing. Rahul Dravid is the
LAST person who would care about his IPL contract or the money he earns
from it!
Well!!! Nicely written article explaining the problems and challenges of day-night test cricket match. But, he needs to come up with some more solution to support his views. It is true that if the balls will have to change after every 50 overs the batsmen would be benefited in a spinner friendly wickets , but it would be reverse in the swinging and bouncing tracks. One thing cannot be ruled out is the lack of interest in the test cricket and one of the problem as explained was the placid wickets which produce tame and boring draws. Also, people all over the world ( specially in Asia) are becoming more and more engaged with their professional life, so we have to look into that aspect too. If day-night cricket doesn't provide the solution then they must prepare sporting wickets which would produce some nail-biting finishes
A very poor article aimed at just finding fault with Rahul Dravid's oration. Dravid did talk about meaningless ODI's but there is nothing much to lament about T20 tournaments as International T20s are very less. As far as domestic T20 competetions, he did mention about playing for the country being priority. Not sure what the author expects!
If the pink ball swings more then it would do so for both teams. dew is more of an issue but in a 5 day game both teams will get to use/suffer from it. The critical issue is pitches. in by gone eras we never had bowlers who could inspire interest and so people were satisfied watching their batsmen dominate on dead pitches. today, with the ubiquity of cable TV and the accompanying international cricket on TV, people have woken up to the pleasures of watching a good even fight between bat and ball. good pitches make for good cricket, 1st class or international. hire trained pitch makers who would know how to design fast competitive pitches. Spin is an art because it relies on guile, patience and fortitude not under prepared turners.
Let us remove the draw factor from test matches. Since there is a result in 50 and 20over matches people are attracted. Nobody watches for a draw. there are 90 overs per day. 5 days = 450 overs. four innings. Per inning 112.5. highest scoring team wins. period. if a tie occurs because of leveling of scores. bring in D/L. rate of scoring etc. No drawn matches never.
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