New Stadium in Perth may host Day-Night Test matches in the future

The cricketing world has been experimenting with Pink Ball cricket for quite some time now and the results seem to be ticking the right boxes with fans and critics alike. The first Day-Night Test match was hosted in Adelaide nearly two years ago and the endeavour had met with approval from all quarters. Although Perth had previously been excluded as an option for a Day-Night Test venue, Cricket Australia (CA) Chief Executive, James Sutherland has hinted at reconsidering the decision after the construction of the new stadium in the city is completed.

Earlier Perth had been unable to host Day-Night Tests, owing to the shortcomings of the WACA Stadium in terms of proper playing conditions at sunset. Reportedly, the late afternoon shadows due to its huge concrete light towers was found to stretch across the ground, causing disruption in viewing for both players and broadcasters. Moreover, as reported by CA’s official portal, the summer time difference poses a big disadvantage for broadcasting as it enables the final session of each day’s play to be shown live in eastern states in prime time. But with the construction of the new stadium about to be completed in Burswood, twilight cricket at Perth in the near future seems pretty much plausible.

CA Chief hopeful of having Pink Ball Test matches in New Perth Stadium

In an interview to cricket.com.au, Sutherland said, “The new Perth stadium, when it comes on board … won’t have many of the effects of shadows on the ground that you would otherwise have at the WACA. So there is actually possibilities there of shifting that one into later evening, even just starting it an hour or two later. That’s a possibility, but we haven’t thought about anything different for Melbourne and Sydney.”

As for playing session timings, the three-hour summertime difference between Perth and the other big cities in Australia would mean that a Day-Night Test in WA would commence at around midday and end at around 10 pm on the eastern seaboard. This would be in contrast to the early-afternoon starting time as had been practised previously in Adelaide and Brisbane.