Irish: Players have not talked about pink ball Test

Cricket365
April 12, 2016

Chief executive of the South Africa Cricketers Association, Tony Irish, said that the none of the Proteas have agreed to play a day/night Test in Australia this year.

Reports circulating in the Australian media suggests that South Africa will play three Tests against the Aussies away from home with the final game of the series under lights in Adelaide.

However, according to MWP, Irish says no players have been consulted by Cricket South Africa about such a decision and they would be hesitant to play a floodlit match in their Test whites.

Irish said: "Not a single one of our players has played with the pink ball under lights at any level of cricket and, despite the fairly widespread praise of the concept in Australia, player feedback from Australia and New Zealand indicates that there are still significant onfield concerns.

"A number of players from both teams said they had trouble seeing the ball in the evening and that conditions had to be doctored to preserve the condition of the ball.

"The players are not totally against the concept or anti innovation but feel that this is still very experimental and this is obviously an important series for them.

They don't want to be out there not knowing what to expect in what could be a match which decides the series. More work needs to be done on making the ball more durable.

"From a South African point of view the players feel it would be extremely disadvantageous to agree to playing a day-nighter at this stage and in such a big series. I think it's highly unlikely that CSA will agree."