English county Warwickshire announces Pink ball trials

England is set to host the day/night fixture after county side Warwickshire announcing a trial by next month. The club will stage one of their Second XI fixtures under lights at Edgbaston.

The 2^nd XIs of the Warwickshire and Worcestershire will play in the county’s home ground in Birmingham on August 22-24. The fixture was previously scheduled at Barnt Green but was moved to Birmingham, which has permanent floodlights. Leading ball manufacturers Dukes and Kookaburra will provide a pink ball for the 2nd XI fixture, with each used for two innings of the match, which will be free to the public.

England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chairman Colin Graves remains keen on the idea and officials at Lord’s are keen to look into prospect of Pink Ball cricket.

Alan Fordham, the ECB’s head of cricket operations, said: “Staging first-class matches under lights with a pink ball is a format which has worked well elsewhere in the cricketing world and it’s important we consider ways in which we can attract more people to first class cricket in the long term.

“We’ll be monitoring this trial match closely and we would like to thank Warwickshire for their support in hosting the fixture.”

Neil Snowball, Warwickshire’s chief executive, added: “The concept of day/night cricket has attracted a large amount of interest around the world and we are keen to support the ECB by exploring the potential for these fixtures in England and Wales.

“We have a long tradition of staging day-night cricket on this ground and this trial game will provide valuable insights for everyone interested in broadening the audience for our first class game.”

Edgbaston hosted the first ever day/night limited-overs match in Britain in 1997, under temporary lights. But the Birmingham ground now has permanent floodlights and is seen as the most likely venue should England play a home day/night Test.