Vern, SA say no to pink ball
PROTEAS seam bowler Vernon Philander says he does not want to play a day night Test in Australia later this year agreeing with his national teammates’ concerns that they’d be ill-prepared for such a match.
Philander, who’s played 32 Tests, was firm in his stance that the South African team would be at too much of a disadvantage for a Test match under lights, even as Cricket Australia continue to push hard for the event, which proved financially lucrative when played last year.
“Before you play a Test you have to experiment on the domestic front. We haven’t done that. We would be going into a ‘day/night’ Test blind were we to play,” Philander said yesterday.
“As far as I’m concerned, I want to experiment before actually going there and doing it, so I’d probably not (want to play a Test).”
Cricket Australia are pushing very hard for the match to be played and have tried to assuage the South African players saying it would be willing to accommodate their concerns by having them play a three day game under lights before the Adelaide Test – scheduled to be the final match of the three Test series in November.
But Philander insisted that one match was insufficient preparation.
“I don’t think playing one game (using a pink ball) is enough.
“We are all professional players and sometimes people think we are quick to adapt to everything, but as far as a pink ball is concerned we will need a couple of games to get used to it,” said Philander.
Kagiso Rabada was slightly more relaxed about the issue, explaining he’d enjoy being part of an historic occasion, though he did agree with Philander that more preparation was needed and a lot of work was required to ensure a fairer contest between bat and ball.
“I’ve heard good things and I’ve heard bad things,” said one of cricket’s newest superstars.
More fair
“Perhaps they need to look into it more and make it a bit more fair. From what I hear, it’s not a fair contest between bat and ball, and that’s what Test cricket should be about.
“However, the positive is it brings crowds in and I think they need to find a way to balance the two so that it’s good for cricket and good for publicising the sport.”
Last week, Cricket Australia’s CEO, James Sutherland said it was “all systems go” from his organisation’s perspective as far as the pink ball Test was concerned.
The match is scheduled to be played from November 24.
“We’re still working through a couple of things with our South African colleagues and their players’ association, but I’m very optimistic we’ll get there,” Sutherland told reporters.