Why does the first Sri Lanka vs New Zealand Test have a rest day, again?
It's because of the presidential elections, which means a travel day for Sri Lanka players and officials to go and vote
New Zealand players can explore the fort or any of Galle's beaches on the rest day • AFP/Getty Images
In an era in which even four-day Tests feel like a hard-sell, it does seem weird to have a match that stretches across six days. But no, the reason is that Sri Lanka is holding its presidential election on Saturday. These are the first major polls since the country overthrew its last president in 2022, and so kind of a big deal.
Not really. The Tests were being planned long before the election date was announced. And as New Zealand have a tight playing schedule - this series sandwiched between stints in India - the schedulers say the clash was pretty much unavoidable. Though, given the New Zealand vs Afghanistan match that was supposed to be played in Greater Noida did not see a single ball bowled, perhaps in retrospect they could have rocked up to Sri Lanka a few days earlier.
Rest days were actually pretty common in Tests, right into the 1990s, so this is far from unprecedented (there's a fact to throw at people who say cricketers had it tougher in decades gone by). In fact, it's not even unprecedented for Test matches to take a break for an election - the same thing happened in 2008, to allow for Bangladesh's parliamentary polls that year, also against Sri Lanka. That was the most recent rest day in the game.
They will, of course, cover the Galle surface and keep it under wraps on Saturday, to prevent the sun and wind from drying it out.
Again, not really, in the medium term at least. What the boards have actually done is steal a "rest day" from in between the first and second Tests, and plonked it on September 21.