ICC’s most radical Test cricket proposal yet — Red ball in the morning, Pink ball under lights: Will it ever happen?

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has reportedly been considering a major change to the rules of traditional Test cricket by allowing the teams to switch from red-ball to the pink-ball during the five-day games if they are affected by bad weather. The move could allow the play to continue under the floodlights.   

The spectators have lost interest in the longest format in most countries apart from the big three- India, England, and Australia. The number of fans over the five days of a Test match proves it, and the ICC has been trying its best to attract the young generation. 

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The reports of Cricbuzz have claimed that the idea has been discussed during the ICC Chief Executives Committee’s virtual meeting, which the chairman of the board, Sourav Ganguly, also attended. With the idea remaining at a discussion stage, several details are yet to be ironed out, especially how the transition from the red-ball to the pink-ball would take place in the middle of the game.  

There are times when the umpire, under overcast conditions, uses the light meter to check the light of the ground and takes the players off the field due to bad light. Meanwhile, in Asian countries, there are venues where the daylight hours start to decrease earlier than expected in the winter, resulting in around 45-60 minutes being lost at the end of each day. 

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It hurts the viewer’s interest and makes a massive difference in the result of the game. That’s where the pink ball rule can come into play, where the umpires can suddenly change the colour of the ball.

But that will be tough for the batters. Red ball swings early on, and once it loses the shine, batting becomes easy, and reverse-swing comes into play. However, the pink ball has a heavy lacquer with a more pronounced seam, which causes it to seam and swing more for a longer period. It often comes fastest under the lights, making the batters uncomfortable. However, the pacers like Jasprit Bumrah, Mitchell Starc, and Josh Hazlewood will always be interested. 

The rules, which will get activated from the start of October, won't take place in Afghanistan's upcoming series to India. 

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The International Cricket Council (ICC) also plans to reduce the time of the innings break to 15 minutes in the shortest format. The existing rule states- “There shall be a 20-minute interval between innings, taken from the call of Time before the interval until the call of Play on resumption after the interval.”

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Going forward, the head coach of a team will also be allowed to enter the field during the drinks break. However, it’s not clear if the head coach would be needed to wear the team jersey.

Yet another proposed addition is to give the on-field umpires access to the HawkEye data to check the bowlers for their illegal actions during the games. But how will the process progress? That’s not certain as of now. The rules will come into force from October 1.