In October 2012, the International Cricket Council formally green-lit the idea of day-night Tests, offering a new, potentially lucrative spin on the oldest format. “This is all about new audiences and doing all we could to make the game more accessible at every level,” said the England and Wales Cricket Board’s then chief executive, Tom Harrison, when he announced his side’s first pink-ball game a few years later.
James Sutherland, Cricket Australia’s chief executive, welcomed the change from a status quo in which “Test cricket is played at times when most people are at work or school. We limit ourselves by staging cricket’s premium format at times when fans often can not watch.”
Since that decision 24 of 554 Tests have been day-night games. Outside Australia, their most enthusiastic adopters, there have been 11, out of a possible 486. Instead of turning on a new demographic to the joys of Test cricket, the idea has been a turn-off: England have only staged one, in 2017; South Africa’s only attempt came a few months later; West Indies, Pakistan and New Zealand have held two each and India three. This week’s second Test at the Gabba will be Australia’s 14th.
For Cricket Australia the benefit of these matches can be measured in two metrics: TV viewing figures and cash. It gives them a second Test – after the one in Perth, where the time difference is helpful – with play during peak viewing hours on the east coast, home to about 80% of the population. From the first day of the first pink-ball Test, against New Zealand in 2015, viewers have tuned in in large numbers: that game was watched by an average of 1.46m in the five major cities, 27% up on that year’s Perth Test.
Their day-night game against South Africa in 2016 again saw a 27% bump. In 2017, 42% of the country’s metropolitan population watched at least some of the first Ashes day-nighter and so on to last year’s match against India, when every session but one brought in more than a million viewers. More viewers means more money: CA’s A$45m-a-year broadcast deal became A$100m in 2013, A$197m in 2018 and A$216m in 2023.
Fans also enjoy an improved, or at least a different, experience with Adelaide – which has hosted eight of their day-nighters – getting it down to a fine art. “What they’ve done with the pink ball Test is pretty awesome, how they’ve made it an event, how it all kind of fits together,” says Marnus Labuschagne.
The numbers have not added up everywhere and when the West Indies hosted, inevitably, Australia in a day-night game in July it was the third outside Australia this decade. They were bowled out for 27 in their second innings and are unlikely to be wildly keen on a repeat. Indeed, every country but one, and for a variety of reasons, has more or less dropped the idea.
India held three, but they all ended inside three days (the one involving England didn’t make it past day two) so any commercial benefit from the timing was outweighed by the losses caused by the early finishes. “Spectators lose money, broadcasters lose money,” said Jay Shah, former secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India and now chair of the ICC. This was not the idea.
Pakistan were initially keen, inviting Sri Lanka to take part in what would have been the first day-night Test in 2013 (they said no). Eventually, a couple of touring teams agreed to games, West Indies in 2016 and a now-willing Sri Lanka the following year, both held in Dubai.
“In principle, the PCB is supportive of and inclined towards accepting and trying out innovative ideas and new technologies,” said the Pakistan Cricket Board’s chief executive, Subhan Ahmed. Sadly, their Emirates-based fanbase was not so supportive of innovative ideas and a combination of miserable attendances and heavy dewfall curtailed the experiment.
New Zealand hosted their first day-night game in 2018, but two days were rained off, attendances were disappointing, and it took them five years to have a second, and to date final, go.
There is a small, but important difference here between most associations and many players: most associations can’t see the benefit of pink-ball games, many players can’t see the pink ball. Before they were first used, manufacturers tested a variety of colours, including yellow and orange. The PCB held a T20 tournament in 2016 with an orange ball, but it did not go down well – unless you were trying to catch it, in which case it went down very easily indeed. “It was a horrible experience for the fielders,” said Misbah-ul-Haq. “Some catches even fell on their heads, they just couldn’t see it.” Yellow balls appeared blurry on television, so that was them out.
Kookaburra tested 16 different shades of pink and three colours of stitching before settling on their favourite combination though after player feedback the seam was quickly changed from white and green to black. “It’s easier than the white seam,” Joe Root said this week. “That was a nightmare.”
But there is an inherent problem with a pink ball: around sunset the higher-frequency wavelengths of light become scattered and for a short time red light becomes dominant. This is why the sun, having appeared yellow all day, often looks orange or red as it sets. A number of academic studies have identified a change in the pink ball’s contrast polarity – the relationship between an object and its background – during this period. With all the red light around it becomes harder to see. The pink Kookaburra also swings more than their red version while new, so put a fresh one in the hands of a skilled seamer at the right time of day and havoc can ensue – particularly at the Gabba, where Brisbane’s humidity already helps swing bowlers.
Worried about the risk of injury, players were so reluctant to take part in that first day-night Test in 2015 that Cricket Australia had to increase the prize money for the series by A$1m before they signed up. If those fears have eased over the past decade England were still being warned about “wickets falling in clumps” at twilight.
Players could improve the situation by wearing glasses with coloured lenses during the most troublesome period, but this has not caught on. Once the sun sets completely, and floodlights take over, that troublesome contrast polarity resets.
But this week Travis Head, who has played 15% of his Test innings in day-night games and scored 30% of his centuries in them, played down the impact of the blush ball. “If you win you think it’s great and if you lose maybe not.” (Australia have won 14 of their 15 day-nighters and Head nine of his 10.)
“I think it’s great. It still works the same way, still five days, it’s just with a slightly different colour ball. Pink ball, white ball, red ball, who really cares?”
