A pink ball would be swapped in for a red ball during Test matches under a proposal before the International Cricket Council, to avoid stoppages due to bad light and extend playing hours.
Two sources with knowledge of confidential discussions confirmed reports out of India that the proposal, which has been discussed by the ICC’s cricket and chief executives committees, will be subject to further talks at the ICC board meeting in Ahmedabad this weekend.
Should those conversations progress, the new regulations would be in place in time for this summer’s home Test matches against New Zealand and England, plus Australia’s tours of South Africa and India.
The ICC was contacted for comment. Cricket Australia declined to comment.
Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg has been a leading advocate for exploration of way to keep players on the field in dull light, largely because of a succession of bad light delays during recent New Year’s Tests in Sydney.
Day one of the fifth Ashes Test was truncated by more than a session in January, a repeat of similar events during a Test against Pakistan in 2024 and South Africa in 2023.
“There’s a lot of things I get frustrated with in cricket, bad light’s one of them,” Greenberg said on SEN Radio in January. “I caution those remarks against the remarks of players who said they couldn’t pick the ball up and it was really dark and those sorts of things. But I get frustrated that we don’t have a solution to this problem.
“We sit under the ICC rules and guidelines so we have to respect that, but I do think we can use our voice to advocate for a change. Let’s show a little bit of willingness to see if we can be better at this.
“We’re in the entertainment business. I can’t think of another business that continues to walk off in front of its fans. Again, I preface that by saying it has to be safe for the players, clearly, but we’ve got big light towers here and we’ve got technology. I’m sure there’s a way we can make our way through it.”
Former Venues NSW chair Tony Shepherd, who shared the board table with Greenberg before he joined CA, said of bad light restrictions in 2024: “I think they ought to have a good look at the light question. To stop the play today because of bad light is bullshit. Switch to a pink ball … and keep the game going.”
While details of the rule change are still to be fleshed out, the operating principle would be to use the pink ball under lights to extend playing time if both competing teams agreed to the playing condition before a series.
It is not clear whether day-night Tests, currently played with a pink ball for their duration, would move to using a red ball during daylight hours.
These kinds of tweaks are likely to meet with a mixed response from players, who remain suspicious of the pink ball and its vagaries. Former Test opener Usman Khawaja voiced concerns about interchanging pink and red balls in 2024.
“If it is, I’m retiring,” Khawaja said. “The red ball is so distinct. I’ve played white-ball [cricket], I’ve played pink-ball, I’ve played red-ball. They all react so differently. Nothing reacts like that red ball. How they make it, the dye they put on it.
“The red ball is what we grew up playing with,” he added. “The red ball is Test cricket, right? So unless you can find a way to replicate the sun, the lights aren’t the same. The lights shining on a red ball is still really hard to see, whereas a pink ball is a lot better, but it doesn’t react the same as red.
“And this is my argument. The beauty of Test cricket and what I love about Test cricket is it really hasn’t changed a lot in the last 100 years. I think people maybe are just getting a little bit more impatient. It sucks, but that’s Test cricket, unfortunately. And when it rains or when you have bad light, you just have to cop it.”
Former Australian coach Justin Langer has said that players’ views need to be balanced with the overall picture for the game.
“It is so frustrating, and I’ve walked in all the shoes as a player and as a batsman, and you think you want to be off because you want perfect conditions and then as a coach you want what’s best for your team,” Langer said on Seven in 2024.
“But when you look at the big picture it is crazy that these guys aren’t playing Test cricket here. It’s not great for the game of cricket this is happening right now.”
White-ball captain Mitchell Marsh has been ruled out of the Pakistan ODI series due to an ankle injury he picked up in the closing stages of the Indian Premier League.
Josh Inglis will captain the side in the absence of Marsh, who has flown home to Perth. It is unclear whether Marsh will be fit in time for the second leg of the tour in Bangladesh.
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Daniel Brettig is The Age’s chief cricket writer and the author of several books on cricket.Connect via X.