Night isn't right

Last week I took a senior American sports journalist to watch a day of the third Test between India and Pakistan. I always find it easy to explain cricket to American friends because in baseball there is a starting point. My opening line is always the same: cricket is baseball-plus... Add the pitch - the playing surface, not the delivery - and the scoring zones behind the batter, and the possibilities are multiplied several times.

My companion was eager to learn. Naturally, he was bemused by the idea of batsmen letting ball after ball go by, by the idea of batsmen batting on for as long as they could, with my stoic acceptance of the possibility of a draw after five days of play, but by the end of the day he had sufficient comprehension of the game to share some of my enjoyment. However, two aspects of Test cricket still bothered him: white uniforms and the red ball. It staggered him that teams didn't have their own colours, and he found it hard to follow the red ball in a packed stadium. To him it was common sense for a sport to make it easy for spectators to identify the players and get a better view of ball.

I was horrified, but little did I know that even cricket's administrators were thinking along similar lines, though for different reasons. Day-night Tests may not happen in a hurry, but the concept seems a strong enough one for Cricket Australia to explore seriously. Coloured clothing and white balls - or maybe pink ones - would then be corollaries.

Cricket Australia can offer reasonable grounds for contemplating such a move. Attendances remain healthy at the major Test venues in Australia, particularly Melbourne and Sydney, but they are getting thinner at the smaller centres and on television. Though Sri Lanka are a much-improved touring side, this season's first two Tests attracted criticism for small crowds in Brisbane and Hobart. The story is far more grim in countries like South Africa, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. In addition to the two reasons offered above, day-night Tests provide a more convenient time-band for fans to enjoy Tests on weekdays.

There is a precedent in the form of World Series Cricket. In 1978, the second season of WSC, the Supertests were played over four seven-and-a-half hour days, starting at 1.30pm, and with a white ball. These were better attended than the previous year.

But Test cricket must not be tampered with lightly. It is a game that has survived the vagaries of time, and in many ways it is a miracle that it has done so. Those trying to change it must first understand why a game that seems so out of sync with the pace of modern life still manages to retain a loyal constituency. Test cricket survives despite its length, its slow pace, and the possibility of stalemates. In fact, all these are part of its appeal. Test cricket has never been and never will be "entertainment" in the traditional sense. It appeals to a band of eccentric fans who have the patience and the commitment for it. It requires a certain vision, and a grasp of the finer nuances of the game, to be able to enjoy Test cricket. It was an indulgence a century ago, and more so today, and that's how it will remain, no matter what time of day - or night - it is played.

Thirty-five hours is still a lot to spare over five days. It will be a mistake to assume that day-night Tests will naturally draw in casual spectators who will drop in to unwind for a few hours after a day's work: they are likely to be bored and disappointed.

Whites are among Test cricket's many eccentricities, but to the form's loyal supporters, they are a powerful symbol: a mark of distinctiveness and purity that signifies Test cricket as the highest form of the game. Night cricket will need to be played with lighter-coloured balls, and that will call for coloured clothing, which will take some reconciling with.

All this can perhaps be dismissed as silly romanticism, but the white balls themselves present the biggest practical obstacle. They certainly did in 1978, when they turned brown midway through the mandated 80 overs. Greg Chappell reckons the hardest part about that season was spotting the white ball under lights. "I felt that if ever I was going to be cleaned up, it was going to be under lights," he said in The Cricket War, the definitive book on WSC.

Orange balls were also trialled, and according to Ian Chappell, they 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". Not much has changed in the last 30 years. In fact, the authorities have been forced to introduce a mandatory change of ball after 35 overs in one-day cricket.

Test cricket at night will be impossible in many parts of world because of climatic reasons. In the subcontinent, dew will be a huge factor, and spinners will become redundant after 7pm. At some venues in South Africa, the ball acquires a life of its own under lights; and in England, it might just be too cold for spectators and players beyond sunset during many months. Of course, the perfect solution to all this might be to put a roof over the ground, but let's not even go there.

But ultimately it is not really about spectators at the ground. It's about eyeballs on television. Cricket Australia reckons the television audience for Tests could quadruple at night, but that would amount to far more cash than a few thousand bums on the seats. Administrators increasingly talk the language of business and we sports fans are now referred to as consumers, and as consumers we have the right to demand the best possible product. Change shouldn't be resisted for the sake of it, but change at the cost of quality is unacceptable. At this point, Test cricket isn't possible at night without altering its character. And to us, who hold the game dear to our heart, character is everything.

Michael Holding is another WSC player I sought an opinion from on the possibility of Tests at night, and I can find no better conclusion than his response: "I wish people would leave Test cricket alone and keep their tinkering to the limited-overs game. What they need to do, if they think they aren't getting enough crowds, is to play less of the damn thing so that when a Test series comes around, people will want to see it instead of saying, 'Just another Test'."