While Cricket South Africa is keen to try out an experimental four-day, pink ball “Test match” against Zimbabwe at the end of the year, it turns out the players are not onboard with the plan of shorter Tests. The players haven’t been properly consulted about it, said a report in ESPNCricinfo.
The shorter version of the longest format of the game was supposed to be the brainchild of former CEO Haroon Lorgat. However, despite his resignation last week after a rift with board members, CSA wants to go ahead with the planned fixture.
“I expressed the same concern to CSA before Haroon left – the fact that there was no proper consultation. There are a lot of cricket aspects involved. It is quite a big change to a format. It’s four days and day-night, playing against a team that has never played with a pink ball. It’s the combination of four-day and day-night that concerns,” Tony Irish, CEO of the South African Cricketers’ Association was quoted as saying.
The idea for the four-day Test came after India didn’t agree to be part of the traditional Boxing Day Test in South Africa. The alternative idea was to then host Zimbabwe for a four-day, day-night match in Port Elizabeth starting from December 26. However, the approval from the International Cricket Council to call the fixture an official Test is still pending, reported ESPNCricinfo last month.
The South African players have said they would take part in the match if the ICC approves CSA’s request for it to carry Test status. But if that does not happen, game is likely to be cancelled in the event that it is not, according to a report in Cricbuzz.
CSA is set to ask the ICC to allow them to try out the format at the Chief Executives Conference in New Zealand next week.
The report also suggested the approval is likely to be granted, with many boards seeing the financial value of a shorter Test. However players who are part of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA), which is also headed by Irish, are not of the same mind.
“FICA don’t have an official position because we don’t think there’s enough work being done. In the survey (conducted by FICA last year), the majority of players were not in favour of four-day Tests. And that’s an issue over the concept. It’s about looking at the advantages and disadvantages,” Irish was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.
The ball is now in ICC’s court on whether a four-day Test will now be the latest addition to the innovations that the game has been going through several modifications in the last few months.
