Day/night tests get green light

South African cricket unions must upgrade their lighting infrastructure to stand in line to host day/night test matches.

Pink ball day/night matches is a new phenomenon aimed at revolutionising test cricket and South African venues - such as the Wanderers, SuperSport Park, Newlands, the Mangaung Oval and Kingsmead - have expressed interest in hosting such tests.

Australia is in the forefront of the innovation and has already hosted New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa since November last year with large crowds pouring in.

South Africa played their first day/night test, which they lost to Australia by seven wickets in front of a capacity 125,993 crowd over four days at the Adelaide Oval.

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And England will host their first day/night test against the West Indies at Edgbaston in August.

Gauteng Cricket Board chief executive Greg Fredericks confirmed this week that they are keen to host day/night tests at the Wanderers but that they must first raise about R13-million to upgrade their lighting infrastructure.

"We are keen to host pink ball test matches at our venue because we believe that it will be good for the people of Johannesburg and surrounding areas, but there are financial and logistical hurdles that we must overcome for that to happen," he said.

"There is no doubt that day/night cricket will gain popularity as time passes by and we have to change with the times."

Fredericks added that they will reach out to sponsors and local authorities to raise money.

In Pretoria, Northerns Cricket Union chief executive Jacques Faull also confirmed their interest in hosting day/night matches but said that a cost-beneficial funding model must first be developed.

"Our lights are not sufficient and it costs about R250,000 a night to host matches. We are keen to host a match but we have to understand the model because we like to innovate for our fans," he said.

Faull added that there was no doubt that day/night cricket is here to stay given the high attendance figures of the few matches that have been played in Australia and Dubai last year.

block_quotes_start Nothing is concrete at this stage but there is no doubt that we will open to the idea because it is something that can work in Cape Town block_quotes_end

"I haven't spoken to the Australians who have already hosted matches but there is a good reason it is happening and it is definitely the future of the game," he said.

"I believe that day/night matches will definitely save test cricket even though I don't know when we will be ready to host the first match in South Africa."

Western Cape Cricket Board chairman and president of Western Province Cricket Association, Beresford Williams, said they would be open to the idea of hosting night matches at the picturesque Newlands.

"Time and again we are confronted with the demands of new international trends and we have to move with the times but we have not really discussed the issue at board level. Nothing is concrete at this stage but there is no doubt that we will open to the idea because it is something that can work in Cape Town," he said.

Free State Cricket Union chief executive Johan van Heerden said they would "absolutely" be interested in a day/night match at Mangaung Oval.

- TMG Digital