The CEO of the Australian Cricketers’ Association, Todd Greenberg, revealed on Friday that Australian players would like to develop a ball that will allow Test cricket to continue in fading light. Greenberg said he will talk to Cricket Australia about the possibility of a joint venture.
“I want to talk to them about it and say what else we can do?” Greenberg told the Herald and The Age on the SCG on Friday.
“Who can we work with? How do we work this out? Because what I’m quickly learning is that the ICC doesn’t do these things. There’s no one in cricket doing this, so there’s a void.
“And in the absence of anyone else doing it, I’m going to call it out and say, well, we should do it. Let’s do it.
“We can’t keep complaining about not being on the pitch, we have to do something about it. Are we really engaged in research and development to find solutions? And if we’re not, the players will come to the fore and we’ll spend some money, and we’ll do something because we need to find some solutions. It’s just not good enough that we didn’t play.”
Sustained rain swept through the Sydney area from early Friday morning and the gaps in rainfall were not enough for the ground crew to prepare the pitch and resume play. Shortly after the scheduled tea break, the umpires called off the game for the day.
Former Australian cricketer Kerry O’Keeffe, who serves on the Fox Sports commentary panel, said: “Sometimes it can give you the wrong impression of how dark it is. But this is the state of play for the rest of the match, mid-afternoon.”
Mark Waugh also felt that light was sufficient to continue the game. “I would like to change the rules. I say once the lights are on we stay on, simple as that,” Waugh said on Fox Cricket.
Steve Waugh had also taken to his Instagram to point out the widespread criticism surrounding the lack of play on the first day due to poor lighting.
“Test cricket needs to realize there is a lot of competition and it’s just not right for the lights not to be used when the players are out due to poor lighting,” the former Australia captain said on Instagram on Wednesday. “Many unhappy spectators who cannot understand the rationale and reason for not playing. #commonsense #movewiththetimes @icc @cricketaustralia,” Waugh Sr. wrote.
“It’s funny in the game we’re playing that you turn it into a pink ball and we keep going. That’s the nature of the beast,” said former South African captain Shaun Pollock.