The Ashes: Why Joe Root is wrong about day-night Tests, and their place in the Ashes

Joe Root is entitled to his opinion, always offers it respectfully, and provides nuance in doing so. But his view about day-night Tests in the Ashes is off the mark.

The point of this piece is not to rip into Joe Root. He’s entitled to his opinion, always offers it respectfully, and provides nuance in doing so. Characterising him as a “whinging Pom” is counter-productive, because Root has fronted up with grace in many lean times for England and had been an outstanding ambassador for the game.

But let’s just step into the alternate universe this week in which the Gabba Test was being played entirely during daylight hours with school still in session and adults going to work.

Say there was another two-day Test. Though unlikely, it is not impossible, especially given the way the tourists go about their cricket.

Imagine if it was all over by late afternoon on Friday. Or even if it crept into Saturday or Sunday.

Joe Root questioned day-night Tests’ place in the Ashes. Picture: Getty Images

The sum of eyeballs, specifically in the next generation, that would be denied the chance to watch Test cricket would be in the hundreds of thousands if not millions.

Cricket’s biggest obstacle over generations has been the inability of the sport’s administrators to get out of their own way.

In particular, paying too great heed to tradition over common sense: in this case the matter of scheduling sport in the timeslots that the greatest number of people will be able to watch it, and in turn grow the game.

Root says the Ashes doesn’t need a day-night Test.

Joe Root needs a big turnaround in form during the day-night Test in Brisbane. Picture: Getty Images

In this column’s view, it would be madness not to have a day-night Ashes Test, and if anything, there should be more pink ball cricket, not less.

Doubtless there will be readers rolling their eyes at this, quipping that day-night Tests are an inferior product and fundamentally alter the substance of Test cricket and its rhythms.

There is no doubt it is a dramatic change, but its best is no less exhilarating.

Having been fortunate enough to cover Australia’s tour of the West Indies earlier this year, it was lamentable how flat the atmosphere was at the various Test venues.

About the only time that it felt like a stadium was anything close to rocking was when the West Indian quicks were running amok under lights in Jamaica.

This was sport at its rollicking best, even if it had a significantly different complexion to Caribbean clashes of generations past.

As cricket’s leaders grapple with the game’s schedule, and one-Test series emerge as a serious option for the next World Test Championship cycle, pink ball cricket should be seen as the game’s future, not an oddity to be shelved.

Test cricket in England prospers without day-night matches, but elsewhere the format is floundering in its current iteration. South Africa, reigning WTC champions and having just trounced India 2-0 on the subcontinent, don’t even play a home Test this summer. Tradition is to be respected, but it is not an altar at which progress is to be sacrificed.

Players’ voices should be listened to, but they cannot be the loudest ones in the room. Fans, and maximising their ability to watch and attend the game, have to be the main priority.

Originally published as The Ashes: Why Joe Root is wrong about day-night Tests, and their place in the Ashes