Switch off the lights. That is the message from Proteas captain AB de Villiers in regards to the on-going saga over whether South Africa will play a day-night Test in Australia later this year.
Two weeks ago reports emerged from Australia revealing that the Proteas as yet unannounced itinerary would include Tests in Perth, Hobart and Adelaide – the last of them a day/night match like the inaugural floodlit Test last year between the hosts and New Zealand at the same venue.
Since then there has been no official word from Cricket South Africa, with CSA spokesperson Altaaf Kazi telling Independent Media at the time that “we are still in discussion and finalising the fixtures with Cricket Australia.”
But with CA set to announce the tour fixtures on Wednesday, South Africa’s Players Association Chief Executive Tony Irish expressed the Proteas dissatisfaction with the advent of a day-night Test stating: "The main reason is we feel disadvantaged is that not one of our players who will compete in that Test has played Test match cricket, or any cricket, with a pink ball."
Test captain De Villiers, though, has now spoken out publically on the issue for the first time, speaking to Independent Media exclusively from India, where he is playing for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League. De Villiers recently had discussions with Australian Test captain Steve Smith and was left even more disillusioned with the prospect of South Africa playing their maiden day-night Test.
“At the moment we are not too keen on playing in the proposed day/night Test match due to a few concerns that have come from a number of sources involved in the maiden Test played last year. We had a meeting with Steve Smith and some of the Australian players when they toured here earlier this year and the consensus from our talks were that there are just too many unknowns, players from both teams were reluctant to go ahead with it,” De Villiers said from Bangalore.
“South Africa and Australia have a great cricketing rivalry and this is a series that we value, we could well be playing for an opportunity to regain the No.1 Test ranking so playing a day/night match is a fundamental change to the itinerary.”
The Black Caps expressed similar reservations last year ahead of their historic Test last year, but were eventually swayed when Cricket Australia put up a $1 million prize pool, split 60-40 between the winners and losers. The Adelaide Oval has traditionally been a high-scoring venue which favours the batsmen often forcing matches into the fifth day – it was the ground which Faf du Plessis batted for close on eight hours on Test debut on South Africa’s last tour to save the Test.
However, the inaugural day-night Test lasted just three days with the Aussie pacemen dominating proceedings to bowl their team to a three-wicket victory. The nature of this result, and the fact that extra grass was also left on the pitch to allow the pink ball to hold its shape longer clearly indicated that the natural conditions of the Adelaide Oval was altered.
“The pink ball has had some issues with how it responds to 80 overs of Test cricket and that is one of the key issues that we feel plays a big role in the success of the day/night Test. The pitch also had to be ‘doctored’ to minimize the abrasive wear and tear to the pink ball, which seems to happen quicker than the red ball, and this is also an area we feel is a big factor in the run of play,” De Villiers added.
The Australian players had the benefit of trialling the pink ball in a Sheffield Shield cricket – the Aussies’ first-class competition – prior to last year’s Test, unlike the Proteas who have never played any competitive cricket with a pink ball. Last year’s Africa T20 Cup - a Twenty20 competition designed primarily to provide top-level exposure for semi-professional cricketers - was the only occasion a pink ball was used in South African cricket. However, the pink ball was only utilised for the group stages after the players complained about the visibility and the tournament organisers reverted to a white ball for the knockout stages.
CA has offered the Proteas a “warm-up” game under lights, but De Villiers does not believe this will get his team up to speed in time.
“I don’t think it (warm-up game) will. I don’t think it’s something that you acclimatize to in one match and the intensity of an international cricket match also brings in other factors which are hard to replicate in a warm-up match,” he said. “In the Africa T20 Cup the pink ball provided huge problems for fielders who had trouble tracking it on the ground and often ended up running in the wrong direction.” - Independent Media