New Zealand Cricket considering day-night Test in India

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Anurag Thakur made a historic announcement last week when he said that the Indian team will play its first pink ball day-night Test later this year against New Zealand.

However, the Head of cricket operations at NZC, Lindsay Crocker, said the board had hardly had discussions about a day-night Test in India and had first heard of it only on Friday when Anurag Thakur broke the news at a press meet.

Now, New Zealand Cricket has now shown its interest in participating in the day-night game against India. NZC seems to be embracing the idea, provided the two boards go ahead with the plan. Mumbai is the most likely venue for hosting the match that might take place later this year.

NZC chief executive David White had talks with his BCCI counterpart at the ICC meetings at Dubai recently and the two discussed the possibility of hosting the day-night Test.

”We’ve said we are receptive to the idea. We will work closely with the players, but in saying that, if the trials look good and they (India) are comfortable with (the trials) it’s very positive from our point of view. We believe day-night test cricket has a big future in the game,” White was quoted as saying by the New Zealand Herald on Tuesday. India will be trying the pink balls in the domestic games prior to the arrival of the Kiwi side in India.

Talking about the consensus among the ICC members about the day-night Tests, White said that the response is very positive. ”The sentiment was very positive. Everyone realises it’s going to be important for the future of the test format, to make it accessible to the fans,” he said.

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