Captains sceptical about day-night Tests

Ricky Ponting has warned administrators to remember the failed experiment of day-night first-class matches before trying the same thing in Tests. Cricket Australia is looking at the idea and wants to trial it within the next decade, but Ponting and Daniel Vettori hope the traditional format remains.

Night matches were played in the Sheffield Shield from 1994-95 to 1998-99 and the struggle for runs under lights concerned Ponting. "It sounded great at the time, but everyone I've spoken to who played in those games found that they were pretty hard work, especially the batsmen," Ponting said. "There's colour of balls and all that sort of stuff that they have to get on top before they start entertaining the idea of day-night Test matches. The ball one would be one of the biggest issues I imagine."

James Sutherland, the Cricket Australia chief executive, is investigating the change in an effort to get a bigger television audience. Matches could be played from 3pm-10pm instead of the current schedule of 11am-6pm.

Ponting said world captains have all been concerned about playing Tests under lights when the natural light starts to fade. "If they come up with appropriate measures to cope with a lot of things," he said, "we will start entertaining the idea a bit more."

Vettori said he had trouble picking up the red ball at times during last month's series in South Africa. "We had the lights put on about 4 o'clock and it made it hard," he said. "Unless they change the colour of the ball I think it will be difficult."

Ian Chappell, who played in the day-night Supertests of World Series Cricket 30 years ago, said it was a good idea with one major handicap. "That's the ball," he said. "Until you fix that up, and can play 80 to 85 overs with it, you really can't play. If the ball's not right the integrity of the game becomes a bit of a problem."

Yellow ones were used in the Sheffield Shield competition for the first two seasons and were switched to orange when the players complained they lost them in the background of stadium seats. However, both types scuffed too easily and "behaved differently" to the red balls. The concept was introduced to attract more spectators but was dumped when the crowds were similar.