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After coloured clothing made its way onto the cricket field way back in 1978 courtesy the Kerry Packer World Cricket Series, 60-over One Day Internationals were sanded down to 50-over ‘quickies’ and the controversial Decision Review System was introduced, Cricket today has another all-new watershed concept. The day-night pink ball Test.
After toying with the idea in several domestic cricket matches in England and Australia, the first day-night Test was played out in 2015 at the Adelaide Oval in Australia between the hosts and New Zealand.
A success? You bet.
A record 123,736 people flocked to Adelaide that day, breaking the record in terms of crowd numbers for non-Ashes Tests. It also attracted a 2.34 million viewers on the television, unprecedented numbers in Australia for cricket matches other than the historic Ashes.
Following this, Australia hosted a two more day-night matches (against South Africa and Pakistan) while Pakistan and West Indies played one at Dubai. England followed suit, hosting West Indies, in which an estimated 70,000 people visited Edgbaston, of which 40% had never watched Tests.
Oddly, India, where cricket is a religion and a way of life, has not caught on to this latest innovation of pink-ball cricket. Even though Indians tasted a day-night five-day game way back in 1997 — a Ranji Trophy clash between Delhi and Mumbai at Gwalior — albeit with a red ball. A few Duleep Trophy matches were played under lights in 2016, but BCCI confirmed that India wouldn't play one for the 2016-17 season. They have none scheduled for the 2017-18 season either, so far. Before the start of the ongoing Test series between in Dubai, Sri Lanka was one among three top-tier Test-playing nations including India and Bangladesh not to have played with a pink ball.
Aren't we Indians being denied a taste of better Test cricket action? Set aside the ardent fan’s point of view, and I still think we Indians deserve a pink ball Test. Don't think so? Here's a few reasons...
For the common man bored of multi-storey malls
It's the weekend. You take your family to the mall, watch a movie, munch on a few junkies, stroll around for a while, return home tired and with a grumpy stomach. It is so common a routine that traffic blocks that occur on weekends are mostly en route to the parking lot in malls.
Need a change?
Why don't you take your wife and kids to a day-night Test? Let me tell you, Test matches are far more interesting an outing than a night-show of Jab Harry Met Sejal . It is entertainment for the kids, you get to watch your stars in action and hey, cricket is trendy, so a selfie from the stands wouldn't look too bad as a Facebook wall post either. The “event” starts late afternoon and extends till close to midnight. This way, you can catch the action on weekdays too, after office hours.
For the average IPL fan
IPL may showcase cricket, sure, but it is a different ball game. It's all about the gala and bash afterwards. Think cheer girls, party nights, glamour crowds with a smattering of a contest between bat and ball.
For some of you who wait for the IPL season to catch some action of cricket and stadium entertainment, a pink-ball Test could be an off-season refreshment. It is not fully boring Test cricket. It is exciting, new and high on action quotient. The ball swings around under lights, wickets tumble everywhere, batsmen dominate the early evenings. It has everything.
For the average office-goer who is stuck with Cricbuzz and Hotstar
Constantly refreshing your Cricbuzz feed? Stuck in office, itching to catch the action on Television but can't run home 'cause your Boss would be pretty upset.
Ok, you have a Jio sim now and it's easy to catch the action on Hotstar while the office work takes a backseat. But then, the action is two-three balls late and the ‘Cricbuzz guy’ seated next to you announces that Kohli is sipping his boost in the stands while you watch him crack a boundary. Oh, the frustration.
Sitting around in an office cubicle can get extra tough during Cricket season. Enter the pink-ball Test. Most of the action takes place after office hours, you can hail a cab to the stadium or go back home and switch on the TV to catch some live action. Goodbye, annoyingly fast Cricbuzz, and hardly-live Hotstar.
For the ardent cricket lover
I am talking about this guy. If cricket is your religion and Sachin was your God, you can't miss the action when cricket comes to your hometown. Pack your snacks, bunk your homework and head on down to the stadium. The routine repeats once a year when India play cricket at a stadium near you. But then, you want the latest technology and the best of cricket action when you pay for a seat in the stands. India were late to embrace the DRS and now Pink ball Tests are also taking a backseat.
For a cricketing board that has abundant money, arranging for a day-night Test is easy-peasy. It also stands to earn more revenue from Tests given the likelihood of working-class heroes turning spectators by night as well as more television viewership.
When the beer-sipping uninterested few who barely care about cricket get to sprawl themselves on the Adelaide grass banks and drink in the pink-ball action, why can't you?
Why BCCI, why?
We, the True Cricket Fans Association, deserve pink ball Tests. So does the common man who doesn't care about cricket, the average cricket fan who has never seen Test matches in the stadium and the television-viewer stuck with stupid Pehredaar Piya Ki . We, representatives of a nation where cricket is worshipped, deserve the best of action. Give it to us.
