Clarke joins KP as day-night Test sceptic

Cricket365
May 1, 2014

Australia Test captain Michael Clarke has joined Kevin Pietersen in expressing doubts about day-night Tests, though not quite as bluntly as KP, saying the longest format doesn't need altering.

The Aussies were recently made the number one Test side, displacing South Africa, after a string of excellent performances in the past six months. Thus, Clarke feels fans are happy with the game as it is.

When asked if he thought Tests would be made more attractive under floodlights, he told <i>Cricinfo</i>: "No I don't. I think there's room for all three forms of the game we play now.

"I think it's great that you can play an ODI either a day or a day-night game, T20 the same. I've never experienced Test cricket at night so I don't know what it's like … but I don't believe we need to have day-night Test cricket, for Test cricket to survive.

'I think if you've watched any Test cricket over the lat captain Michast 12 months, there would have been a lot of people off their chairs watching the game. So long may that continue, during the day or at night."

He added; "I'd have to try it first. I don't think it would be fair or right for me to sit here and say yes or no. I think I need to experience it, probably at first-class level, before I could comment on that.

"They've done that in Australia, they've used the pink ball during the second-last round of Shield cricket in Australia. So when I get back home I'll have that conversation with a few of the players and see what they think."

The Aussies' next Test assignement is against Pakistan in the UAE, and as always, their relative weakness against spin is a concern, though Clarke feels they're improving and will keep doing so with exposure.

He said: "Facing spin bowling has been an area of an Australian cricketer's game where we've had to continually improve.

"We're fortunate in Australia to have really good wickets that do have pace and bounce and then later on in the game you get spin. But when you play in the subcontinent, you're getting spin from ball one, you're getting less bounce, you're getting more natural variation off the wicket.

"So the more we can experience playing in those conditions, the better we'll become. I know our junior programmes do a lot more, in terms of travelling to the subcontinent to learn about those conditions, than what we did when I was a young player.

'Dubai and the UAE are going to be an extremely tough series, Pakistan have a very strong team, and they know those conditions."