We are not too keen on playing in proposed day-night Test: De Villiers
AB de Villiers has expressed his concerns about the proposed day-night Test match between Australia and South Africa during their tour Down Under later this year. With the No.1 Test ranking at stake, the South African Test skipper has said that a day-night Test will bring along 'too many unknowns'.
"At the moment, we are not too keen on playing in the proposed day-night Test match due to a few concerns that have come from a number of sources involved in the maiden Test played last year. We had a meeting with Steven Smith and some of the Australian players when they toured here earlier this year, and the consensus from our talks were that there are just too many unknowns. Players from both teams were reluctant to go ahead with it.
"South Africa and Australia have a great cricketing rivalry, and this is a series that we value. We could well be playing for an opportunity to regain the No.1 Test ranking, so playing a day-night match is a fundamental change to the itinerary,” AB de Villiers told Independent Media.
The 32-year-old also spoke about the unreliability of the pink ball which is used in a day-night Test. He said, "The pink ball has had some issues with how it responds to 80 overs of Test cricket and that is one of the key issues that we feel plays a big role in the success of the day-night Test," De Villiers said. "The pitch also had to be 'doctored' to minimise the abrasive wear and tear to the pink ball, which seems to happen quicker than the red ball, and this is also an area we feel is a big factor in the run of play."
De Villiers also insisted that a warm-up day-night Test will not be enough for the players to acclimatize to the change in variables.
"I don't think it (warm-up game) will. I don't think it's something that you acclimatize to in one match and the intensity of an international cricket match also brings in other factors which are hard to replicate in a warm-up match,” he explained.
Dale Steyn, on the other hand, has welcomed the new concept and has expressed his eagerness to play in a day-night Test.
"I don't want to go through my whole career without playing a day-night game. How cool are they? I thought it looked awesome when New Zealand and Australia played one. It looked entertaining, there was a big crowd. The ball is pink - it's something different. You want to test your skills with that whole thing and it's very exciting," Steyn told cricket.com.au.
0
0
0
0
0
0
Comments
Sign up or log in to your account to leave comments and reactions
0 Comments