Tony Becca
THE LATEST news coming out of Australia is that Cricket Australia (CA), the same body that is attempting to squeeze every last cent out of the game, and in doing so to restrict the press in its coverage of the game for the benefit of those who love and support the game, is looking at the possibility, probably within a decade or so, of playing Test matches at nights.
According to CA's chief executive officer, James Sutherland, the reasoning behind Test cricket at nights in Australia is to get a bigger television audience.
Sutherland has not said as much, but it is obvious that despite the fact that Test matches in Australia are well supported, and that next to the BCCI in India Australia is the richest cricket-playing country in the world, the move, the plan, is another effort to get more money into CA's kitty.
While nothing is wrong with more money in the kitty, and especially so if it is used to spread and to develop the game in terms of its skill level, Sutherland and CA should remember two things. They should remember that in Timothy chapter six, verse 10, Paul, the apostle, warned that "the love of money is the root of all evil", and that in the 19th century Samuel Butler wrote that "the want of money is so quite as truly".
Previous experiences
Based on their previous experiences, they should also remember something else.
In 1994 and 1995, in 1998 and 1999, the powers that be in Australia played the then Sheffield Shield and the now Pura Cup at nights under lights, and they should remember why they did not continue the experiment.
They did not continue because it was a failure, and it was a failure mainly because cricket is a batsman's game and because the batsmen were at a disadvantage.
Maybe because of the colour of the ball, which at one time was yellow and at another time was orange, maybe because of the glare from the floodlights, batsmen found it difficult to score runs and fielders found it difficult to catch the ball - so much so that it became a hit-or-miss game for the batsmen and for the fielders.
Also, in case Australia's bosses have forgotten, the crowds attending matches between 1994 and 1995, 1998 and 1999, were at best no better than they were when the matches were played during the day in natural light.
In deciding whether to play Test matches during the day or during the night, Sutherland and company should also stop and think, and if they do so they should remember the many attempts to continue a day's play in a Test match under lights whenever it gets dark and what has happened to that experiment.
Batsmen and captains around the world rejected it, and they rejected it for the simple reason that regardless of the colour of the ball, regardless of the quality of the ball, batting under floodlights is quite different from batting in natural light.
On top of that, there were some countries which did not have lights simple because they could not afford them.
Times have changed, there is no question about that, and including more spectators and therefore more money, there must be some advantages if cricket, like baseball and tennis, is played at nights.
The nature of cricket, however, makes it different from baseball and tennis.
The fact, for example, is that batsmen are more likely to get injured playing under floodlights than baseball batters and tennis players and, on top of that, unless one wants to change the game - to make it more like baseball where a hit becomes a major statistic and a home run almost a miracle, unless one wants to change the technique of the game, the skill level of the game and therefore an attraction that had lasted more than 150 years, and unless one wants to make milestones like 50 and a century a thing of the past, cricket should be played during the day and not during the night. That's especially so in poor countries that can hardly afford to pay for the electricity for the priorities of life.
Power cut issue
Can anyone imagine a Test match being played at Sabina Park without a power cut?
More important, can anyone in this country imagine the Govern-ment of this country guaranteeing the cricket authorities light at Sabina Park when there is darkness around Kingston, and especially so in crime-ridden Kingston, when the traffic lights are out and there is chaos in Kingston and when the hospitals, all over Jamaica, are not only in darkness but also without electricity to do what they are supposed to do?
"Money is a good servant, but a bad master," says a 17th century proverb, and those who love the game of cricket for what the game of cricket is believe so.
Regardless of the promise of more money, those who really love the game, those who have a passion for the game, prefer, I believe, that the game of cricket, and particularly so Test cricket, remains what it is.
With the one-day 50-over version of the game and the Twenty20 version of the game generally played at that time, and with coloured clothing and white balls, coloured bats and stumps, a swipe here and a swipe there, there is already enough cricket, and the right kind of cricket, under lights.
