Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland "is expecting more nations to host day-night Tests in the coming year" with '17-18 Ashes on the cards, according to CRICKET COUNTRY. Sutherland also mentioned day-night Ashes in '17-18 "is a distinct possibility" that could be played during the next battle for the urn. He said, "I think it’s a distinct possibility. I think over the course of the next 12 months or so we’ll see day-night Test cricket being played in other countries other than Australia. I’m really confident that other member boards are very keen to do that. As we’ve talked about, there’s going to be more (day-night) Test cricket played into future and it will be a part of regular series. And it may well be that there is a day-night Test match in the Ashes series in 2017-18." One of the reasons why South Africa is against a pink-ball Test "is due to the lack exposure" toward it. But CA is hopeful Proteas will "agree to play the fixture." Sutherland: "We’re still optimistic that the big picture will prevail. The big picture is about making the game of Test cricket more accessible to fans and those sitting at home, to be able watch into the evening after school or work" (CRICKET COUNTRY, 4/21).
PRETTY IN PINK: The PTI reported in an effort to "raise the ever dwindling number of spectators in the stadium," the BCCI is all set to host its first-ever day-night cricket Test with a pink ball when New Zealand tours India later this year.
BCCI Secretary Anurag Thakur said, "We have decided that we will play one day-night test match with pink ball against New Zealand later this year. Before that Duleep Trophy will act as a dress rehearsal for the day-night test match."
It "is expected that all leading Indian players will play in that Duleep game in order to get an idea and also give a feedback to the board before they go ahead with the Test match" (PTI, 4/21).
