India miss out on D/N spectacle: SACA boss

India have missed the opportunity to ensure the opening Test of the coming summer’s series against Australia is an attendance and ratings blockbuster by refusing to play it as a day-night fixture, South Australia Cricket Association Chief Executive Keith Bradshaw said today.

After months of negotiating between the Board of Control for Cricket in India and Cricket Australia, it was confirmed today that the first Test of the four-game series scheduled to begin on December 6 will be played with a red ball during daylight hours.

The BCCI had indicated some time ago they held concerns about agreeing to playing a Test match under lights given they are yet to take part in a Test using the pink ball, and formal notification that Virat Kohli’s top-ranked team won’t take part in a day-night format was released by CA today.

Bradshaw, a former Tasmania first-class player who was also Chief Executive of the Marylebone Cricket Club at Lord’s for five years, expressed his disappointment that the day-night Test concept which has won strong support in Adelaide will not return next summer.

While he expects the first Test between Kohli’s dominant Test outfit searching for its first series win in Australia against an opponent shaken and re-shaped by the recent ball-tampering scandal will still draw huge interest, he claimed it would have enjoyed even greater success as a day-night event.

"Absolutely they (India) have missed an opportunity," Bradshaw said today.

"I think this would have been something for the game of cricket, there would have been a lot of interest back in India being the first day-night Test (the nation has played).

"It will still be a great Test match – it will still have incredible viewership, it will still have incredible attendances but I think a day-night Test would have been preferable.

"Fans have voted with their feet – we’ve had record crowds the past three years when we’ve had a day-night format … and one day we’ll host a day-night Test here against India, I’m sure.

"There is no doubt that the day-night format is very, very popular here.

"Having said that, of course there will be some who prefer the traditional day Tests so for those people they’ll be happy with the result.

"But for many people who have come to enjoy what a day-night Test has to offer, being able to come down after work for example, that’s an added attraction for them, so I think there will be some people who are very disappointed."

Image Id: CE35A0280B224EB4917A2717B3E9BC5B Image Caption: Pat Cummins with the big wicket of England's Dawid Malan under lights last summer // Getty

The three previous day-night Tests held at Adelaide Oval saw record crowd aggregates for matches against New Zealand (45,000 more spectators over the course of the game), South Africa (55,000 more) and England (almost 200,000 more).

The SACA still expects to "smash" the previous aggregate attendance for an Australia-India Test at the venue – which was substantially redeveloped with a greater capacity from 2014 – of around 130,000 for the upcoming first Test that will begin on a Thursday morning.

However, an early afternoon start would not only have enabled cricket fans to attend at least the evening session after work commitments on week days, but also provided a boon for prime-time viewers in Australia’s more-heavily populated eastern states.

And benefited television viewers in India where a day-night game would begin mid-morning due to the 5-6 hour time difference during summer months. 

Bradshaw said he was not privy to the negotiations between the BCCI and CA that led to today’s final decision, a week after CA released the other details of its international schedule for the coming 2018-19 summer.

But he indicated that after "feeling quite confident" last week that India would agree to take part in the historic first, there seemed to have been a significant change of heart in the past 24 hours with suggestions some India players held reservations about the pink ball’s behavior under lights.

"We have heard that players have been consulted with, what the feedback there is we’re not sure," Bradshaw said.

"I think there’s certainly some caution there, they were hesitant with the DRS (referral system that India opposed in Tests until recently).

"Perhaps there is some hesitation around the twilight period, some feeling that the bowlers will be offered some extra assistance.

"I think that’s disappointing because I think that adds an extra dimension to the game.

"Test cricket is about challenging the skills of the Test players, it’s the pinnacle of our game and to have the ball moving around a little bit more in that twilight period I think that adds some extra excitement for fans and the viewers.

"So I think it would have added an extra component to the Test that would have been really exciting."

Certainly, fears that the pink ball might not spin were allayed in last summer’s Ashes Test when Australia’s record-breaking off-spinner Nathan Lyon claimed 6-105 from almost 50 overs in his team’s 120-run win.

Lyon today also expressed disappointment that the four-match series – with other Tests scheduled for Perth, Melbourne and Sydney – will not include a day-night fixture, with the sole pink-ball Test for the summer to be Australia v Sri Lanka at the Gabba from Jan 24-28.

"Personally, yeah it is," Lyon said today when asked if it was a surprise that the annual Adelaide Test would revert to a daytime event, for next summer at least.

"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, but after playing a couple of years down in South Australia (where he worked on the Adelaide Oval ground staff) I know what the South Australian public is like and no doubt they’ll pack the stands to see a great Test match between Australia and India."