The Daily Telegraph

Cricket in the pink

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Test match cricket is 140 years old, but for many fans of the game it is essentiall­y eternal, and tinkering with its format is akin to interferin­g with the laws of nature that govern the Moon and stars. But the sporting world is changing and, while some may regard it as blasphemy, the time has come to look again at Test cricket. The cause is good: without reacting to the excitement and audience-pull of new, shorter formats such as Twenty20, Test cricket may eventually die out. That would be a tragedy. So though some purists may despair, the advent today of this country’s first day-night, pink-ball Test match is to be welcomed.

No doubt the game will change as a result. The pink ball used for greater visibility at night behaves slightly differentl­y to the traditiona­l red. And in the few other day-night games that have already been played, some teams have radically rethought their batting order to suit the new conditions. Yet for all that, it is hard to argue with the essential facts. As Michael Vaughan points out in his column in the sports section today, almost half the tickets sold for this week’s game at Edgbaston are going to people who have never been to a Test match before. That is undeniably positive for the game. Drawing in new audiences is the only way of preserving the five-day format. If the price of survival is that some of those days turn into nights, is that really too high to pay?

Those wavering should reflect upon the fact that one match in the Ashes series in Australia this winter will be played as a day-night game. It would certainly not be sensible for England to embark on such a crucial encounter with no preparatio­n. So embrace the revolution. Only change is eternal.

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