Ball first, lights later

Test cricket at night is feasible; I know from having played it 30 years ago during World Series Cricket.

For a player like myself who has a very fair skin complexion and is susceptible to the sun it was a blessing to start matches at 2:30 in the afternoon and miss most of the heat of the day.

Day-night Supertests were also good for the public; they could do a day's work and then dash to the cricket ground and see two sessions of hard-fought play.

However, until the authorities find a ball that is suitable for day-night Test matches you can't consider playing the longer version under lights. There were problems with the balls trialled for WSC; the orange balls had a Halley's Comet-like tail that was disconcerting for the batsmen, and yellow was hard to pick up when it travelled along the ground. Something to do with green being a primary colour emanating from the combination of yellow and blue was the explanation we were given.

White is the ideal colour and that is why baseball was able to adapt so easily to night games. However, baseball has one huge advantage over cricket. Every time the ball is fouled off into the crowd, a fan gets to keep the memento, so there is no such thing as an old white ball in baseball.

Until a white cricket ball is developed that can retain it's colour for at least 80 overs, you can forget about playing Test matches at night.

There are a few other things that have to be taken into consideration before day-night Tests become a reality. Some places will just not be suitable because of weather conditions, like dew at night. And because every region has its own weather quirks, some trialling would be necessary to see how pitches behave at night.

These kinks could all be ironed out simply by playing four-day first-class matches at night to decide whether the longer version of the game is possible. However, until a suitable missile is found, it is all conjecture because maintaining an even balance between bat and ball is crucial in Test cricket.