Day-night Test not confirmed yet: NZ cricket

WELLINGTON: New Zealand Cricket’s Head of Operations Lindsay Crocker said that there are a lot of modalities that needs to be taken care of before the day-night Test match against India becomes a reality.

BCCI secretary Anura g Thakur had announced that India will make their ‘Pink Ball’ debut against the Kiwis during their home series later this year.

“India are quite definitive, which is quite exciting because they seem quite committed to the idea. We hadn’t considered that would be an option, so there is a bit of water to go under the bridge from our side. It is certainly very exciting for us to potentially be involved in the first Asian day-night [Test],” Crocker told Stuff.co.nz.

“The first I heard of it was the news that broke overnight, but (NZC chief executive) David [White] maybe a little closer to it because he is in Dubai at the [ICC] chief executive’s conference.”

“Alphabetically, India traditionally sit next to New Zealand at these conferences so David would have no doubt talked to his Indian equivalent about the concept, but it would have been relatively fresh news to him as well because it certainly wasn’t a discussion we were having when David left a couple of days ago.”

According to ESPN Cricinfo:” Among the factors to be considered before a confirmation from the NZC were the stadium to be chosen for the match, its floodlights, the playing conditions, and practice opportunities available to the New Zealand players before the match.”

White was expected to return during the weekend from Dubai and Crocker said discussions about the match could progress “fairly quickly”.

New Zealand is slated to tour India in October to play three Tests and five One-Day Internationals.

IF GIVEN THE GO-AHEAD, THE OCTOBER TEST WOULD BE THE FIRST PINK BALL TEST TO BE HELD IN ASIA