Michael Clarke against day-night Test matches

Michael Clarke

Australian skipper Michael Clarke has expressed his view on the idea of day-night Test matches, saying there’s no immediate requirement of conducting Test matches under lights.

“I think there’s room for all three forms of the game we play now. I think it’s great that you can play an ODI either a day or a day-night game, T20 the same,” Clarke told to ESPNcricinfo.

“I’ve never experienced Test cricket at night so I don’t know what it’s like. But I don’t believe we need to have day-night Test cricket, for Test cricket to survive. I think if you’ve watched any Test cricket over the last 12 months, there would have been a lot of people off their chairs watching the game. So long may that continue, during the day or at night,” he added.

However, CA chief executive James Sutherland is in favour of playing Test matches under floodlights ahead of their match against New Zealand in Australia in 2015-16.

“I’d have to try it first. I don’t think it would be fair or right for me to sit here and say yes or no [in regards to playing a day-night Test],” Clarke said.

Several Sheffield Shield matches that were held under the floodlights in Australia earlier this year, raised a lot of concerns regarding the pink ball.

Speaking about this, Clarke said: “I think I need to experience it, probably at first-class level, before I could comment on that. They’ve done that in Australia, they’ve used the pink ball during the second-last round of Shield cricket in Australia. So when I get back home I’ll have that conversation with a few of the players and see what they think.”

Cricket Australia’s chief James Sutherland’s has a different point of view.

“We clearly need to continue to improve the ball and to make sure it behaves as closely as possible to the red ball,” Sutherland said after the trials. “But I have always said that somewhere along the way – in order to get to that outcome – it may be necessary to reach some sort of compromise on the ball,” he concluded.