Day-Night Test: Will pink-ball friendly grassy pitches affect spin?

1) 70% of players said the ball was not easy to see when batting or fielding at dusk.
2) 80% felt the pink ball swung more than the red, especially at night.
3) 80% thought that the pink ball wore out a lot more than the red.
4) 85% believed the day-and-night conditions affected the length of the game.

Does the pitch needs to be doctored to preserve the ball?

Yes, if you go by what happened in Adelaide, and in experiments in domestic cricket in Australia, and in Pakistan. Before that Adelaide Test, the two captains Steve Smith and Brendon McCullum were consulted, and their permission sought, to maintain a generous grass covering on the pitch, and the immediate areas surrounding it, to preserve the ball and delay it’s wearing out process. Adelaide Oval curator Damian Hough had left 11mm of grass. At the end of the game, Smith and New Zealand coach Mike Hesson said more grass was left than what they had anticipated, and suggested it also played a part in the game getting over within three days.

It will be interesting to see whether the Indian grounds will be conducive enough to play with pink ball, and even if the curators manage to produce a pink-ball-friendly grassy pitch, would the Indian players be happy to play on a pitch where they might not be able to deploy their spin attack? A decision on their own batting strength against quality spin might also play a part in their thinking.

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Was any change made to make the ball more visible?

In Sheffield Shield, the domestic tournament in Australia, in February this year, the authorities tried something different. The pitch was still essentially grassy but they made the seam of the pink ball black. They hoped that would make it more visible to the batsmen. The experiment wasn’t an unqualified success though. In the first game played with the new black-seamed pink ball in Adelaide this February, the ball was changed frequently. In the first innings of Victoria, it was changed as early as in 12.1 overs. This despite the fact that six of the practice pitches either side of the one used had thick grass cover. The umpires also changed the ball 19.3 overs into Queensland’s game against Tasmania that was played at the Gabba in Brisbane.

What happened in the Pakistan experiment?

Pakistan first tried an Orange ball in 2011 before going pink next year. In January2016, they again tried pink in the final of the Quaid-e-Azam tournament that featured the likes of Misbah-ul-Haq, Younis Khan and Azhar Ali. No batsman made a hundred and the fast bowlers picked up 27 of the 34 wickets that fell. They played with a Kookaburra ball, though it wasn’t the one that was used in the Test in Australia.

Misbah-ul-Haq believed that the dew conditions in Karachi made it “extremely difficult for batsmen”, especially once the lights were switched on. “The new pink ball was seaming a lot, the moisture on the pitch (due to heavy dew) made it tough for the batsmen. Even lining up for high catches for fielders was a challenge as the visibility of the ball wasn’t all that great,” Misbah said.

Azhar Ali too had similar views. “As soon as the ball got older, we found it difficult to see it. It also swung more than usual in the night. As a fielder it’s hard to see the ball from square of the wicket and sometimes it’s a complete miss. Taking high catches was the other issue, as the older ball gets blurrier.”

Taufeeq Umar pinned the start of the wearing out to the moment the lacquer wore off. “As soon as the lacquer came off, the pinkish colour started to fade out and you really have to push hard to concentrate.”

How is the pink ball made? How is it different from the red?

The differences lie in how the leather is dyed and with the protective film that is added to preserve the pink colour. Kookaburra first experimented with 16 shades of pink before they settled on one.

Last year, Brent Elliott, the managing director of Kookaburra, spoke about the preparation method. Unlike the red ball, which is dyed red before a nitro-cellulous lacquer finish is applied as finishing touch, the pink ball needs more work. It’s first dyed red. “On the pink ball, in order to help preserve its colour through the twilight and natural wear of the ball, we add more colour so we put more pink on it.”

With the red, the top coat does scuff off within the first 10 to 15 overs and then the natural fats of the ball are what encourage the later shining. This feature is still possible with the pink ball, however it is harder to shine. This will mean that teams will need to work hard at preserving the condition of the ball. I suspect this will be one of the challenges,” Elliott explained.

What did the Australian domestic players feel about it?

Some batsmen felt that the full deliveries were harder to pick up. A few talked about the difficulties in judging spin by focussing on the seam position, as they could do with a red ball.

What did the Australian crowd feel about pink?

They loved it. The 123,736 crowd figure broke a record for non-Ashes Test matches at Adelaide. The 2.34 million viewers who tuned in for the final session on third day on Sunday was also a record for a non-Ashes Test. Cricket Australia even conducted a survey among those who came to the venue. 81 per cent felt that all Test matches at Adelaide should be day-night affairs. Nearly 67%, two thirds, said they would attend twilight games rather than in the day. Ultimately, fans’ love for night games might well push manufactures to improve the quality of pink ball, and day-and-night Test cricket might be here to stay. It’s just not clear yet though come October whether Indians would get to see the pink ball fly into the night sky.