Australia’s cricket chief Kevin Roberts on Friday urged India to reconsider its opposition to play under the lights after a poor crowd turnout on day one of the first Test. Cricket Australia had originally pencilled in the ongoing opening Test of the four-match series as a pink-ball match, but India did not endorse the idea.
“It matters what the fans think and they’ve voted with their feet. Those numbers (in previous years) are incredible so we’re really excited about getting back to that in the future.”
Roberts said he hoped to convince India of the merits of a day-night test on their next tour of Australia in 2020/21.
“Let’s hope so. Part of that fabric of cricket both nationally and internationally is so rich so we embrace the fact that they’ve had a different view about this Test match,” he said.
“We hope that the sentiment from fans is something India can see.”
According to Roberts, India is the only national team still holding out on day-night Tests, which CA believes is one of the key ways to retain interest in the five-day version of the game following the rise of the quickfire Twenty20 format.
Australia have played four day-night Tests since 2015, three of them in Adelaide, winning them all. They play Sri Lanka under lights in Brisbane in January.
