Bad light rule a blight on cricket

England captain Joe Root has backed calls for play to start earlier in Test matches in the event of time being lost to bad light.

England’s Jos Buttler and Joe Root make their way off as the Test against Pakistan ends in a draw at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton

England captain Joe Root has backed calls for play to start earlier in Test matches in the event of time being lost to bad light.

The second Test against Pakistan ended in a predictable draw after significant delays for rain and bad light at the Ageas Bowl meant that only 134.3 overs were possible across the five days — the shortest Test match in England since 1987.

Root said: “We maybe don’t need to start every day at 10.30am but if you need to make time up that is something you could look at throughout the game.

“It is way above my pay grade but I do think there are other things that could be looked at and trialled in this country, in particular, to avoid similar scenarios in the future.

“I do think this week has been unique — it is not very often you lose so much time to bad light in a five-day game. It does need to be addressed somehow.”

The regulations for playing in bad light are now set to be reviewed by cricket’s international governing body, the ICC.

Pakistan and England battle it out at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton before the rain-and-light-affected game ended in a draw

A proposal to carry on playing with floodlights as the main light source was rejected seven years ago but the ICC will now ask its cricket committee, chaired by Anil Kumble, to look again at the regulations.

At present, floodlights can only be used to supplement natural light. The committee will also revisit the idea of using a pink ball for Tests played during the day.

Under the regulations, the host country can decide whether to use a pink ball provided the opposition are in agreement.

There is also an acceptance that there could be more flexibility around the start time of Tests.

Kumble’s committee will look at two options. One is to use the pink ball throughout the match and the other is to swap the red ball for a pink one that is the same number of overs old when the light fades.

The ICC has a policy of “maximising play” which urges the match officials to try to ensure the game can continue in bad light. There has been criticism levelled towards the umpires in this Test for taking the players off too readily. They took a light-meter reading at the start which was used for the rest of the game as the standard, meaning that once the light had deteriorated to that level the players were taken off.

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That play did not begin until the scheduled 11am start, despite conditions being playable earlier in the morning, has been another source of frustration. Unlike in most other countries, the ECB chooses to add time lost to the end of the day rather than the start. It would be possible for start times to be revised fairly easily given the absence of spectators.

It is understood there is frustration from within the ECB about the early abandonments during this Test.

Given that everyone involved in the match has to stay on site in a biosecure bubble, there is a feeling that it should have been left to the last possible minute to abandon a day’s play and that this year’s unique circumstances lend themselves to more flexibility.

A number of former players, including Michael Vaughan, Shane Warne and Nasser Hussain, have called for a change in mindset from umpires and governing bodies.

“Countries have flown over and sacrificed a lot. People have been in bubbles for weeks on end,” Hussain, the former England captain, said on Sky Sports.

“When you have an opportunity to play and the world is watching, you must do everything you can to stay on. We can’t afford to lose the spectators that are desperate to watch cricket.”

THE TIMES