A decision on whether November’s Adelaide Test between Australia and South Africa will be played as a day-night fixture will be made public by Wednesday, June 8. Tony Irish, CEO of the South African Cricketers’ Association, told ESPNcricinfo the player body is “still dealing with the issue”, and will have a “final decision one way or the other within the next two days”.
South Africa’s players initially rejected the idea of a pink-ball Test but have been in negotiations with Cricket Australia (CA), and the Australian board said last week that it was “hopeful” of the match taking place under lights. On Friday, Australia’s Herald Sun reported that the South African players had changed their mind during the Indian Premier League.
Talk out of the South African camp in the last few weeks has suggested otherwise. AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Kagiso Rabada had all voiced their objection to a day-night Test, citing the lack of practice with the pink ball. Even though CA offered South Africa a warm-up match under lights, Philander said the players would need to have “experimented on the domestic front” and “tested the pink ball properly”, before agreeing to play a Test with it. He said it would take “a few games” before they felt comfortable.
The other major reason for South Africa’s stance was that they are chasing a Test revival after slipping from No.1 to No.6 in the ICC rankings last season and do not want to risk missing out on a rise up the rankings because of unfamiliarity with the pink ball. “The players’ strong desire to play this as a normal Test match is testament to how much they actually care about the series,”Irish said in April. Irish also stressed that the players’ views should be treated with importance and pointed out that both South African and Australian players had concerns.
Australia have already played one day-night Test, the inaugural match against New Zealand at the Adelaide Oval in November last year. Then, CA had provided New Zealand with a million-dollar financial incentive to compete in the match. It is not known if the Australian board has offered the South African players a similar sum but with the declining rand, any amount may prove difficult to turn down.
