India’s refusal to play day-night Test cricket a power play that damages Test cricket
INDIA’S decision to officially refuse to play day-night Test cricket in Adelaide this December, Australia’s summer showpiece, has given Test cricket a black eye it may not recover from.
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INDIA’S decision to turn the lights out on Australia’s summer showpiece has given Test cricket a black eye it may not recover from.
Virat Kohli’s team has exercised all its political muscle in officially refusing to play day-night Test cricket in Adelaide this December, once again treating the future of the international game with disdain for their own self-seeking reasons.
Desperate to seize on the crisis engulfing Australian cricket and win their first ever Test series down under, India has resorted to an almost unprecedented power play and dictated to CA what their own schedule must look like.
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It’s understood they also pushed back against a first Test being hosted in Perth or Brisbane, desperate for the soft-landing of a flat pitch in Adelaide.
Unable to risk the dire financial consequences of India pulling out of a tour, Australia — supposedly part of cricket’s ‘big three’ — has been left with no choice but to bow down to the game’s true dictators and change Adelaide to a daytime fixture for the first time since 2014.
India attempted to ambush Australia with a “poor” pitch for the first Test of last year’s tour of the subcontinent, but as tourists they’re unwilling to subject themselves to the variables of the pink ball.
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Former Test great Ian Chappell says the selfishness of all international boards, not just India is killing the game.
“Countries having a say in the scheduling (is a mistake). India obviously sees a great opportunity to beat Australia in Australia for the first time … to me it’s a decision more about winning and losing than anything else,” Chappell told The Daily Telegraph.
“It would be preferable if you had people who didn’t have a vested interest making those sort of decisions and that’s not a shot at India because they’re all as bad (all boards) as one another.
“The next time I hear an administrator (from any country) making a decision in the best interests of the game then I’ll probably have a bloody heart attack from the shock.
“To me, day-night cricket is an important part of the future of the game and should be fostered wherever possible.
“They’ve just made that decision because they feel it’ll give them a better chance of winning the series.”
India’s insistence on playing red ball Test cricket on a flat Adelaide pitch to open the four-match series is a massive blow to Australian fans.
All four pink ball Tests played in Australia to great have set ground records for each respective country that’s toured.
Adelaide pulled two successive crowds of 125,000 across the first two pink ball Tests, and last summer’s maiden day-night Ashes Test attracted nearly 200,000 through the gates.
In Brisbane, back in 2016-17, day-night Test cricket almost doubled previous crowds at the Gabba.
Interestingly, day-night Test cricket has not made massive differences to television ratings.
Many Australian players have held lukewarm attitudes towards pink ball Tests, but Australia is so far undefeated in four starts against New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan and England.
Spinner Nathan Lyon said he was disappointed by India’s refusal to play ball.
“They’ve got pretty good bowlers as well,” said Lyon.
“It’s disappointing. The last three years it’s been an unbelievable spectacle down in Adelaide with the pink ball.
“We saw how good the Test match was last year against England. It’s disappointing.”