Day-night cricket is the future of the game: Richard Hadlee

New Zealand cricket legend, Richard Hadlee had backed the idea of day-night cricket matches and said that it is the future of the game, not just to attract the audience at the stadium, but also for making it suitable for television viewing.

“Day-night cricket is the future of the game. I think, what we saw at the Adelaide Oval when New Zealand took on Australia, was a wonderful spectacle. Clearly it attracted the crowds and is great for television, I think,” Sir Richard told reporters at the ‘Bombay House’ at Mumbai, where he was hosted by the Tata Trusts.

Australia beat New Zealand in the first ever day-night Test match played at the Adelaide Oval in 2015. However, Hadlee feels that the pink ball behaved better than expected. “We saw how the pink ball worked visually [well] on television. It performed better for players than they expected because there was some controversy and lack of confidence from players whether actually the pink ball will last and whether it could be seen,” he said.

“We saw an extraordinary Test match. Even [if] that was over in three days, it was a [good] contest between bat and ball. And that’s what you wanted. It was a wonderful spectacle,”

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The 64-year old noted his concerns over playing day-night matches in conditions were due factor comes into play. “The only problem [as I foresee] in some areas around the world is the dew factor and that the ball could be affected. That is going to be a disadvantage, particularly to the fielding team, and something needs to be worked through [to even the balance],” he said. “But understand, South Africa now have got into the concept against Australia and it [venue] is the Adelaide Oval again in November. We are looking at [playing the day-night Test] in New Zealand, but that might be another year or so away before that happens in our country,” said Hadlee.

When asked whether India and New Zealand can play a day-night Test when they visit in September, to get used to the conditions, he said, “I am not quite familiar with that. But clearly it is important for the players to have practise games. You cannot ask them to go out there and ask them to play a day-night game against the pink ball. It’s unrealistic in a professional environment or era. That [new concept] needs to be tried and tested, so players can get some confidence,”

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“That makes a lot of sense. Because conditions are different all around the world. So we don’t really know how the pink ball is going to work here in India and that’s why players need to have those practise games [and] that’s what is happening for South Africa when they go to Australia. They were against it initially, because they were to go under-prepared. You got to be fair. If it works, it works. It is the game of the future. Probably one Test in a series is fair enough. I think most people like to see the traditional format during the day, one-off Test [in a series] during night, every now and again, is reasonable,” Hadlee concluded.