Proteas players not sure about night Test

Tony Irish, CEO of the SA Cricketers Association, says the Proteas players are somewhat anxious about playing a day-night Test against Australia.

Cape Town - Tony Irish, the chief executive of the South Africa Cricketers Association, says the Proteas players are somewhat anxious about playing a day-night Test against Australia in Adelaide in December.

”Not a single one of our players has played with the pink ball under lights at any level of cricket and, despite the fairly widespread praise of the concept in Australia, player feedback from Australia and New Zealand indicates that there are still significant on field concerns,” Irish told SuperSport.

“A number of players from both teams said they had trouble seeing the ball in the evening and that conditions had to be doctored to preserve the condition of the ball. The players are not totally against the concept or anti innovation, but feel that this is still very experimental and this is obviously an important series for them. They don’t want to be out there not knowing what to expect in what could be a match which decides the series. More work needs to be done on making the ball more durable.”

Irish felt that that Cricket South Africa will not agree to play a day-night Test., especially in such a big series. “I think it’s highly unlikely that CSA (Cricket South Africa) will agree,” he said. “From a South African point of view the players feel it would be extremely disadvantageous to agree to playing a day-nighter at this stage and in such a big series.”

African News Agency