Cricket test captains pull the plug on plan to finish tight games under floodlights

ICC chief reveals opposition to using artificial means to get results and downplays ‘greeny-yellow’ balls

Joe Root and Ian Bell leave the field at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium owing to bad light (Getty)

Test captains have universally rejected a proposal to play tight matches to a finish under floodlights.

The International Cricket Council consulted teams to check if there was a will to circumvent established playing conditions and press on, even in ever worsening light, when a result is imminent.

It is a pragmatic solution which would have prevented the scenes in Abu Dhabi at the end of the first Test between England and Pakistan on Saturday when play was called off with the tourists needing only another 25 runs in eight overs. But the ICC chief executive, Dave Richardson, has revealed Test captains, such as England’s Alastair Cook, were not in favour of the idea.

Cook queried the decision to abandon play on Saturday evening, but speaking two days later at ICC headquarters in Dubai, Richardson made clear that current protocol has been retained.

We’ve seen people mentioning the introduction of a Test league

&#13; <p>Dave Richardson</p>&#13;

He said: “We have attempted in the past to say to the players, ‘Look, if you’ve got floodlights and they’re good enough to use for Test cricket, we should just bite the bullet – and even if conditions aren’t as good as they might be normally, we should play on and just finish the day’s play or the match’.

“However, that approach wasn’t accepted by any of the teams. They felt that would be unfair, and could lead to unjust finishes. So it’s a problem we’re still faced with.

“It was the captains on behalf of the players,” he added. “Some of the floodlights around the world don’t add enough additional light to make it really worth a huge improvement with a red ball so they said ‘no, no, leave it in the hands of the umpires and let them decide’.”

Richardson also clarified reports that the ICC had identified “greeny-yellow” as the best colour for balls to be used in deteriorating visibility or for day-night Test cricket.

A pink ball is to be used in next month’s inaugural day-night Test between Australia and New Zealand in Adelaide, and it seems that is still the front-running colour.

As for his reported suggestion that cricket’s future is “greeny-yellow”, Richardson said: “I was just talking about a different-coloured ball, and said ‘pink, yellow, green, whatever’... nothing specific but more with the principle of trying to develop a different-coloured ball that you can see in day-night conditions or under floodlights – and one that lasts the pace.”

On the future of international cricket in general, Richardson confirmed that the idea of a Test league is being given serious thought.

He said: “We’ve seen people mentioning the introduction of a Test league, at the end of which you could actually crown your Test champion. That’s something I think, personally, we’d like to consider quite seriously.”

Also on the agenda was cricket’s possible inclusion in future Olympic Games. The ICC is preparing for initial discussions with the International Olympic Committee.

“The plan is to meet them in November,” Richardson said. “The agenda for the meeting is very much exploratory in nature. It’s not necessarily what cricket wants [that counts]. Cricket might want to be part of the Olympics, but the Olympics might not want cricket.”