Nick Ryan: Bring back traditional cricket, not day/night matches

IS a day/night Ashes Test match in Adelaide really necessary, asks Nick Ryan.

Good morning and welcome to day two of what I’m hoping is the last day/night Test match we see at the Adelaide Oval for some time.

It was interesting first time round, less so for the second one, but now that we’re here at the third the novelty has worn off like the sunscreen on a sweaty fat man asked to bowl a few overs to tie down an end.

It was right to stick with the concept until this Ashes series – presenting the oldest rivalry in the game in a new light is something the best cricket ground in the world should do – but now it’s underway can we finally demand a proper daytime Test match?

You remember those, don’t you?

Those Test matches that could offer five days play rather than a truncated three.

Those Test matches where interstate and international visitors could enjoy the city’s restaurants at the end of a day’s play instead of settling for a bowl of nuts in a bar.

Those Test matches where you weren’t half cut before a ball’s been bowled because you read a 2pm start time as an excuse to get on the booze at lunch.

I’ll admit that last one is a problem of my own making, and one just the smallest skerrick of discipline could solve, but it’s just another way of saying I miss the rhythms of a traditional day’s Test cricket.

Day/night Test cricket is like a crocheted condom, something about it just doesn’t feel right.

Test match cricket has its own circadian rhythms, established for more than a century, and when you mess with them disorientation occurs.

They are so strongly established that a lifetime of day/night Test matches won’t rewire them.

I genuinely feel something’s amiss at 11am on Adelaide Test match day.

That feeling you get when you think you’re supposed to be somewhere and you’re missing out because you’re not.

That’s because I should be in position at the Oval, not preparing to be led astray at lunch.

That first session of the day allows for a gentle easing into the game, an opportunity for the spectator to get their eye in while the batsmen do the same.

You read the paper between balls (that’s a weird phrase without context), you apply the day’s sunscreen and start working on the hydration that will work in your favour later in the afternoon.

When that first session begins before noon, the day ahead is properly calibrated. When it begins half way through the afternoon you somehow feel like you’re running behind and need to catch up.

But my lack of self-discipline is the least of the new format’s problems. If pitches have to be prepared green to protect the pink ball, we can expect to see more truncated Tests like the last couple.

The Adelaide Test always punches above its weight. We have the best cricket venue in the country. It’s already the most unique and enjoyable Test on the calendar and doesn’t need gimmicks to draw a crowd.

The AFL have already twigged they can lump our football teams with shitty timeslots because we’ll still turn up but Cricket Australia shouldn’t be allowed to do the same.

We have built it and they have come. We don’t need to leave a light on to show them the way.