South Africa are reportedly refusing to play a day-night Test in Adelaide next Australian summer.

Is it just a cunning stance to pry cash loose from the paws of Cricket Australia, or are the Proteas actually blind to the need to reinvigorate the Test format?

Of the powerhouse Test nations, no team needs to embrace such innovations more than South Africa.

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While interest in Test cricket slowly has dwindled across the world, Australia still pulls in sizeable crowds for home series, Tests remain the premier game in England, and the longest format continues to be a big money spinner in India through TV rights.

In South Africa, the Proteas’ home Tests are attended by anywhere between six and eight spectators. The number of empty seats at South Africa’s grounds is a horribly disappointing sight for any Test cricket fan.

If South Africa are serious about safeguarding cricket’s oldest and most revered format then they cannot afford to turn up their noses at changes like day-night Tests.

This is particularly so now that their Test side has finally ended a long golden era during which they were a consistently outstanding team. If they couldn’t pull crowds with an all-conquering, star-laced line-up, what hope do they have now that the side has receded into mediocrity?

Drastic action is needed to rejuvenate Test cricket in South Africa. The most obvious option is embracing day-night matches, with their family-friendly hours of play, TV-friendly spectacle, and bowler-friendly conditions in an age of boring runfests.

Yet we keep hearing reports that Cricket South Africa do not agree with Cricket Australia’s reported plans to host a pink-ball Test between the nations in Adelaide this November. Two weeks ago Fairfax media reported that Cricket Australia were planning two day-night Tests next summer – the Adelaide match and a fixture against Pakistan at the Gabba.



The very next day, the South African media reported that CSA had not agreed to the pink ball Test and quoted the chief executive of the South Africa Cricketers’ Associations as saying the Proteas were “highly unlikely” to accept playing under lights at Adelaide.

Yesterday that same chief executive, Tony Irish, told media in South Africa that the Proteas players opposed the day-night Test in Adelaide.

“The main reason is we feel disadvantaged. Not one of our players who will compete in that Test has played Test match cricket, or any cricket, with a pink ball,” Mr Irish said. “The reluctance to play is a sign of how much importance the South African players place on the series against Australia.”

This argument is flimsy. Cricket Australia reportedly have offered South Africa a pink-ball warm-up match and, with the Adelaide Test still more than seven months away, CSA would have ample time to schedule other day-night practice for their players.

It is not as if the Australian players are seasoned pros with the pink ball. While Cricket Australia have scheduled a couple of rounds of day-night Sheffield Shield matches over the past three summers, most of the current Australian team had either little or no involvement in those fixtures.

Their day-night experience is minuscule, so it is folly to suggest that they would have a significant advantage under lights against the Proteas.

Of course, South Africa’s reported refusal to play the day-night fixture may well just be a bargaining tool.

New Zealand were not overly keen on playing under lights in the first-ever day-night Test last year, but were swayed by a $1 million payment from Cricket Australia.



Obviously the Australians won’t want to have to keep forking out such a hefty sum to coax teams into playing under lights. It may well be that CSA is holding out to try to get a similarly juicy lump sum.

Let’s hope that is real reason, as it would be a shame were the day-night fixture to be cancelled. As I argued recently, day-night Tests have the potential to add much-needed intrigue to Test cricket because of the better balance they look set to foster between bat and ball.

So Proteas, if you’re acting hard to get in order to raid CA’s coffers, fair play to you. But if you’re genuinely against day-night Tests, you are holding back the format in your country.