Day-night, 4-day Tests need India’s backing

I suspect there are many administrators — not just in India — who believe the game can survive on T20 alone. I tend to disagree, whilst admitting it’s becoming ever harder to predict what might happen in the future with technology moving at space travel speed. If cricket in the future is played by two teams featuring artificially intelligent players and adjudicated by robot umpires, it’s hard to imagine they’ll be programmed to play five days.

However, that’s no excuse for not trying to preserve Test cricket so that players in the near future will at least have the choice of enjoying the game’s ultimate challenge. Test cricket is often largely neglected in the officials’ inordinate haste to fill the coffers via the introduction of T20 leagues.

Sure, it’s wise to capitalise on the popularity of the T20 phenomenon and enhance the financial security of the game, as well as expand it’s popularity but at the same time the longer version needs constant nurturing.

If administrators still retain hopes of preserving Test cricket, then DayNight games are one way of enhancing the nurturing process. Playing under lights, combined with a move to four day games —Thursday to Sunday — to enhance the product for television, would be the ideal format for an exciting World Championship, which would inject muchneeded life into the longer version.

However, like most things in the game of cricket it won’t become a reality unless it gets the seal of approval from India.

Day-Night Tests in India’s traditional cricket season (winter) would be ideal.

In the eastern regions in particular, it gets dark early and this allows for a number of hours of floodlight play as compared with say England where the natural light lingers. The prospect of heavy dew is an irritant but this problem could be overcome by smart scheduling and improvements in technology.

Day-Night Tests are one step in the process of dragging the longer version of the game into the 21st century. The credibility of Day-Night Tests will only be enhanced by the strong backing of cricket’s most powerful body.