DAY-NIGHT TEST

Need sufficient time to prepare for D/N Tests: Shastri to CoA

by Indranil Basu • Published on

"The CoA had a discussion with Shastri during which he apprised that whilst the team and the management are not averse to playing Day-Night Tests, they want sufficient preparation time" - Vinod Rai © Getty

The newly proposed Test championship cycle of the International Cricket Council (ICC), which comes into effect post June 2019, does not include Day/Night or Pink Ball Tests over the next four years. The draft of ICC's new Future Tours Program (FTP) - which has been designed keeping this Test cycle in mind - follows the same policies until 2023. Keeping this in mind, the Indian cricket board was busy contemplating not hosting a Test match under lights either at home or playing one on the tour of Australia later this year.

BCCI's decision to avoid Day/Night Tests received a shot in the arm when coach of the Indian team, Ravi Shastri, recently met with the Committee of Administrators (CoA) supervising the affairs at the Board, and conveyed that the team needed more time to prepare for the concept of Test cricket under lights and therefore the decision to do away with the idea of hosting a Day & Night Test against West Indies in October was done away with.

In line with it, the Indian team will not play the Test under lights in Adelaide either and the onus now lies on the game's global governing body to determine the future of this concept.

Shastri met the CoA members last month and said that the team wasn't averse to the idea of the concept if global administrators of the game wanted to pursue it. However, at this moment, the coach believes there isn't sufficient time available to prepare for Test under lights and would ideally expect around 12 to 18 months before they can prepare for it. However, as TOI reported last month, the concept of a Day/Night Test does not remain BCCI's priority in the first place and as sources in the know of things suggest "18 months is a long time in cricket's global policy shifts".

On Wednesday, as the BCCI stayed firm in its rejection of the Day-Night Test, Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland said India's refusal to play the proposed match isdriven by a desperation to win Down Under. In an e-mail to BCCI on April 30, Sutherland had apparently taken up the issue, but the CoA has asked BCCI secretary Amitabh Choudhary to convey the CoA's decision to not play a Day-Night Test to the CA boss.

On Thursday, in an e-mail to Choudhary (a copy is with TOI), CoA head Vinod Rai writes: "The CoA had a discussion with the head coach of the senior men's team on April 12, during which he apprised the committee that whilst the team and the management are not averse to playing Day-Night Tests, they want sufficient preparation time."

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