Test cricket’s natural home in the 21st century involves a pink ball, a ground lit up by artificial lights, and dinner breaks. The ODI had moved in there (with a white ball, then coloured clothing) nearly four decades ago, but watching players in white gliding over the grass is a special delight.
There are a fresh set of challenges too. No one has quite worked out why the ball swings more under the lights making it, for a while, a seamers’ game. The current theory is that the lacquer coating on the pink ball has something to do with it. But then similar theorists led us into believing for generations that rubbing the red ball with spit or sweat made it swing more.
Now that this practice is banned for health reasons following the Covid outbreak, bowlers find the ball swings just as much as it did before.
Batsmen have to deal with rejuvenated fast bowlers while bowlers, especially spinners, have to find a way of dealing with late evening dew which reduces their control. And both have to come to terms with the drop in temperature, the transition phase at twilight and the possibility of misjudging the speed of the pink ball under these circumstances.
Asking new questions
Thus, for those who believed nothing more remained to be discovered in this great game, day/night Tests ask new questions. Solutions will be found, as they always have been. The journey towards such solutions will be fascinating too.
For spectators, there is something magical about Test cricket at night. Visually, as the sun sets and the lights come on, there is a fairy tale quality to it. I saw my first day/night game in Sydney thirty years ago. And I wrote then, a trifle hesitantly, that perhaps this was Test cricket’s future. The longer format didn’t then face the kind of existential threat it does today. Now I believe day/night Tests are the way to go.
Cricket was born a village sport and the early writings on the game romanticised its bucolic origins, red ball on green grass under the sun and so on. Pink ball on green grass under floodlights can be just as romantic, and aesthetically more pleasing. Maybe because attention is more focussed over a tighter space for lack of distractions in the distance.
Or because it is like watching the action through a toy that was popular in my childhood, the Viewmaster, where you saw Cinderella’s castle or Alice in Wonderland in sharp colours and 3-D. Night cricket evokes a childhood memory that is dream-like and gives the impression that you can reach out and touch what you see.
Influence of TV
The innovation is down to television looking for a larger audience and not because spectators are likely to have an aesthetic experience. But just because television loves day/night Test cricket does not automatically make it bad!
As with so many innovations — 50-over cricket, the DRS, the T20 format — India were slow to embrace it. Now that they have comfortably won all three day/night Tests played at home, maybe we will see more matches being played here. Administrators need victories to justify any change.
Aesthetics apart, there are solid practical reasons too. Spectator convenience, for one. Constructing flexible working hours around a Test match is more easily done, especially now when working from home is an accepted alternative. The five-day Test which often provoked articles on man-hours lost will not be seen as the villain any more. Anything that brings the crowds in for Test cricket is worth trying out.
It does take getting used to, however, for both spectators and players. Meal times get skewed, and watching in Bengaluru is a bit like watching on television a game in England, the timings are nearly similar.
And hard as I tried, I could not get rid of the feeling that the pink ball looked like it was made of plastic. But those are personal biases. The fact that all 19 Tests played so far have ended decisively (and early) means the batsmen have work to do to counter the dominance of bowlers. As Australia’s Pat Cummins put it, “Things happen quickly.”
Ahead of the Sri Lanka Test, Jasprit Bumrah spelt it out unambiguously: “There are mental changes you have to make. We are not used to catching the pink ball, bowling with the pink ball, and as batters, playing against the pink ball. We’re still very new in this format.”
In cricket, you are generally facing two opponents — the rival team and variable conditions like the weather, light, the state of the pitch. Floodlights and a pink ball add another dimension to a five-day game which can often turn on a brief but focussed performance.
Like Rishabh Pant’s record 50 off 28 balls — a magical innings on a magical night of cricket.
