CRICKET must embrace DAY-NIGHT Tests

Red ball snobs tried to kill cricket in the ‘70s when they opposed Kerry Packer and will damage the game again if they resist day-night Test cricket.

Blinkered cricket traditionalists mightn’t like it, but most fans want their sport at night.

Crowds tell us that and ratings tell us that regardless of which sport it is.

Cricket is no different, which is why Packer wanted to play under lights 35 years ago.

Professional international sport is all about the masses, attracting as many fans as possible at the ground and on television to keep the game strong in the face of ever greater challenges from the various football codes in particular.

Claiming that a ball can’t be developed to last 80 overs and be visible at night goes into the “space flight is impossible” category. If Ernest Rutherford could split the atom in 1917 and Neil Armstrong walk on the moon more than 40 years ago, how is it that Test cricket is still allergic to moonlight?

Test cricket is wonderful, a game of intriguing plots and subplots rich in character and built on more than 100 years of glorious history.

There are heroes and villains, triumphs and tragedies, an ageless drama set against sunny summer skies.

Except most people don’t get to watch Test cricket most of the time because they’re at work or at school until the pinnacle of Boxing Day in Melbourne and New Year’s in Sydney, when the Test summer is almost over. And the players can’t get precious about changing conditions if a different ball is developed and they are forced to adapt batting through twilight.

Players put on the show, they don’t run it, and the average Australian cricketer now earns more than $1 million a year. That’s a million or more reasons to put on a show when most people can watch it, which - in turn - could see players receive even greater earnings. Packer saved the game by bringing a new and vibrant audience through the colour and flare of one-day cricket. Now as that golden goose is being seriously overcooked, with crowds dropping at one-day internationals, particularly in Melbourne, the Big Bash is attracting a new generation.

Those who complain about this new fun game are as miserable and short-sighted as the moaners who complained about Packers one-day game a generation or two ago.

The Daily Telegraph