South Africa agree to play day-night Test against Australia: Reports

According to a number of reports, Cricket South Africa (CSA) has come to terms with Cricket Australia (CA) to feature in a day and night Test match against the Baggy Greens which is to be played in Adelaide later this year. The whole bunch of South African cricketers who had previously taken an opposing stance against the whole notion of playing in whites under the floodlights has finally come to a conclusion to give it a try after all.

According to a report that was published in ‘The Herald Sun’ on 3 June 2016, the cricketers from the Rainbow Nation have “changed their stance on pink-ball cricket” in order to make sure that a couple of day and night Test matches are played in the month of November later this year. The South African Test side was previously reluctant to play the day and night version of the longest format of the game since it was sceptical about the visibility of the pink ball under the floodlights.

Although Cricket Australia is yet to officially announce the schedule of the 2016 South African tour of Australia, a certain CA official sounded quite confident about the prospects of a Test match in the twilight hours. “We (CA) remain optimistic that the Adelaide Test match will be played as a day-night match. After the success of last summer's Adelaide Test (day and night), the anticipation in that market is huge,” the CA official told the press.

The Chief Executive of Cricket Australia, James Sutherland had given a brief statement this April in which he had said, “I had some separate conversations with colleagues from Cricket South Africa and the South African Players' Association and I maintain my position that I continue to be optimistic about the Adelaide Test match being played as a day-night Test match.”

The Australian cricket board had hosted a day and night Test match between Australia and New Zealand in Adelaide last summer which garnered a lot of positive feedbacks. Record attendance and enormous television rating points had propelled Cricket Australia to think about hosting a couple more of these day and night Test matches in the coming Australian summer.

It has been reported that Australia is set to play another day and night Test match against Pakistan at the Gabba later this year after the one against South Africa which is set to be held in Adelaide.