• Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.

    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

Is the advent of day/night Test cricket a harbinger for a Test World Cup?

kiwiviktor81

International Debutant
The great thing about ODI World Cups is that you can have matches in the morning and matches in the evening, which means total coverage, the dream of any television executive.

The idea of a Test World Cup has long been suggested, but may not have been attempted yet on account of being economically impractical.

If pink ball Tests are a success, this could mean that a Test World Cup becomes economically viable on account of being able to saturate the time zones with live cricket on a level comparable to an ODI World Cup.

Note that this theory started out as a conspiracy theory so it might be a pooser.
 

SteveNZ

Cricketer Of The Year
God I hope not. I hope Adelaide is such a ****fest that it never becomes viable again to play a one-off Test, let alone a World Cup.
 

SteveNZ

Cricketer Of The Year
Why do you hate Test cricket?
Haha sorry, I mean day-night Test. And Adelaide is a magnficent part of the world, that's not my issue either.

I mean, I'll watch it. I can't wait to see Kane graft out 4 hours for a superbly made 98, only to be bowled by a ball he literally never saw. Or watch either side bat through an entire daylight period on a completely flat one with a ball that plays like it's lost the air out of it.

Of course, the geniuses in TV will say 'hey, it rated better than day Tests - let's have them all the time!'. So hence why I hope it's a ****fest and I wish someone else was playing in it.
 
Last edited:

Spark

Global Moderator
Haha sorry, I mean day-night Test. And Adelaide is a magnficent part of the world, that's not my issue either.

I mean, I'll watch it. I can't wait to see Kane graft out 4 hours for a superbly made 98, only to be bowled by a ball he literally never saw. Or watch either side bat through an entire daylight period on a completely flat one with a ball that plays like it's lost the air out of it.

Of course, the geniuses in TV will say 'hey, it rated better than day Tests - let's have them all the time!'. So hence why I hope it's a ****fest and I wish someone else was playing in it.
So you hope that an experiment that, if successful, would massively boost the commercial long-term viability of Test cricket fails so badly it's never repeated?

Once again, why do you hate Test cricket?
 

SteveNZ

Cricketer Of The Year
So you hope that an experiment that, if successful, would massively boost the commercial long-term viability of Test cricket fails so badly it's never repeated?

Once again, why do you hate Test cricket?
Success is not measured by the amount of 'eyeballs' a TV exec points to on a spreadsheet. Are you telling me Test cricket is not viable as a commercial entity as it stands? Or are you telling me it's not as viable as it could be if it was bastardised?

You've got it all wrong, I love Test cricket with every inch of my heart. The players do too. This isn't red ball to white ball in terms of the transition.

I guess I should be heartened by quotes like the ones from Mitchell Starc, who has played with a pink ball. He seemed over the moon to be gifted the opportunity to boost the long-term viability of Test cricket. I mean he couldn't see the ball from the boundary (god knows how the crowd will) but hey, at least TVs will be on right?

'We've got to deal with it the best way we can': Josh Hazelwood. Stick that on your promotional material.
 

Spark

Global Moderator
Success is not measured by the amount of 'eyeballs' a TV exec points to on a spreadsheet. Are you telling me Test cricket is not viable as a commercial entity as it stands? Or are you telling me it's not as viable as it could be if it was bastardised?

You've got it all wrong, I love Test cricket with every inch of my heart. The players do too. This isn't red ball to white ball in terms of the transition.

I guess I should be heartened by quotes like the ones from Mitchell Starc, who has played with a pink ball. He seemed over the moon to be gifted the opportunity to boost the long-term viability of Test cricket. I mean he couldn't see the ball from the boundary (god knows how the crowd will) but hey, at least TVs will be on right?

'We've got to deal with it the best way we can': Josh Hazelwood. Stick that on your promotional material.
No, success is determined by whether Test cricket actually exists in thirty, forty, fifty years time. Whether you like it or not, whether Test cricket is commercially viable will be the major determinant in that - or do you expect boards to continue to front up the costs of loss-making Test series forever? So yes, I hope that some network exec points to a spreadsheet in the not-too-distant future, works out that hey this is a really good commercial product to sell (on top of the more fundamental qualities Test cricket has which is why we should do everything in our reasonable power to ensure its long-term success), and we get a ****load more Test cricket for a long, long time to come.

There are issues to be solved, no doubt. It's an experiment, hence there are significant unknowns and hence significant sources of necessary caution. But I genuinely cannot fathom wanting this to actually fail - unless you value some vaguely defined notion of purity over actually existing.
 
Last edited:

slugger

State Vice-Captain
"They called it the first one-day international which rather surprised me years later. I thought,
'Gee it's part of history'. That game we thought was a bit of a joke." ASHLEY MALLETT, THE AUSTRALIAN OFFSPINNER

There was a time when players thought one day cricket was a joke aswell.

Thank goodness we didn't listen to the players, the ODI would have never got off the ground.

Same needs to be said about Mitchell Starc, if he doesn't want to play, then say hes not available for selection.
 

adub

International Captain
I'm certainly prepared to give it a crack. I wish that Bangladesh v Zimbabwe tests were drawing good solid 20k crowds to each day and attracting solid TV revenue. I wish young West Indian players were desperate to play tests and simply refused to consider an IPL contract that interfered with that. I wish Test crowds in India were the seething packed in masses they were even 15 years ago. I would love to see Test cricket expand so that Ireland and Afghanistan and whoever else wanted to could be part of what is for me the ultimate team sport. But none of those things are likely. Day/night tests may not be the answer, but maybe it is a small part of the answer to not just maintain Test Cricket at it's current level but to allow it to grow and capture the hearts of new fans.

I wouldn't worry about a world cup though. The game just doesn't lend itself to such a thing. It's one of the things that make Test Cricket so unique and so interesting. Each series is a thing in and of itself, contained and with it's own identity. The way to grow the sport is to grow these head to head rivalries.
 

SteveNZ

Cricketer Of The Year
"They called it the first one-day international which rather surprised me years later. I thought,
'Gee it's part of history'. That game we thought was a bit of a joke." ASHLEY MALLETT, THE AUSTRALIAN OFFSPINNER

There was a time when players thought one day cricket was a joke aswell.

Thank goodness we didn't listen to the players, the ODI would have never got off the ground.

Same needs to be said about Mitchell Starc, if he doesn't want to play, then say hes not available for selection.
Yeah but this essence of this issue is the ball, and the ability to see it/hit it/swing it. When your equipment creates major issues and devalues the quality of your product, as has been readily accepted in the short history of the pink ball, that's a much bigger issue. The only one talking it up is the head of Kookaburra and David White/James Sutherland.

I've been hearing for years that the future of Test cricket is waning, yet I see the FTP consistently pop up with 5/4/3-Test series. Why is that? Where's the evidence that night cricket is required as a defibrillator for Test matches? There are better solutions than giving TV what they want with a product that is significantly jeopardised.
 

Spark

Global Moderator
You are aware that the majority of Test series - the vast majority - lose money, yes? And that night Test cricket is estimated to bring in up to three times as much revenue as daytime cricket?

You want to see no Test cricket except between England, India and Australia? Because that's where it'll end up if ways aren't found to make it profitable. No, it wouldn't work everywhere. No, it isn't perfect. But given that there is no thing as a timeless, unchanging "perfect Test" and given that it is possible to actually, y'know, solve problems, I find it risible to actually want it to fail.
 
Last edited:

slugger

State Vice-Captain
Who are playing these 5 -4 test series the big three. Get real all other teams a treated like the unwanted step child. its history and tradition that has held back test cricket being a true world sport, its all short sighted interest for the big three. this maybe a move in the right direction. sure there will be teething problems, but these are only minor issues that can be amended and rectified, but given up completely and not trying something at all is lame and and unproductive.
 

Spark

Global Moderator
The only Test series that Cricket Australia - who are surely best placed of all the non-Indian nations to make Test matches commercially viable - make a profit on are the Ashes and Indian series. Everything else makes a loss.

I can understand people being pessimistic, but the benefits if it works are so obvious that there only way I can logically see people wanting it to fail is if they hate Test cricket.
 
Last edited:

cnerd123

likes this
I do believe the ICC and all affiliated Cricket Boards don't do enough to make Test matches attractive tbh. The scheduling, marketing, pitches, coverage, all leave a lot to be desired. And the way they all treat Domestic cricket, urgh.

While I am all for Day-Night tests, I do believe there is a lot more than can and should be done by the boards to make Test and FC cricket more marketable. Problem is most of them are too incompetent, power hungry and short-sighted to do anything.
 

SteveNZ

Cricketer Of The Year
Well maybe we require smarter people in charge of the game. Because the answer to saving the most pure form of the game is not to turn into a completely different thing altogether. Do that, and call it 5-day, 5-night cricket. But don't lump it in the Test basket when it's quite likely going to be something very different in how it's played.
 

Spark

Global Moderator
Yeah, and we should bring back timeless Tests, 8-ball overs, the old LBW law, eight fielders behind square leg on the offside, biased umpires, old racists running the game and uncovered pitches while we're at it. Because Test cricket has always been exactly the same for all of time.

I'm really starting to hate people calling Test cricket "pure". It isn't.
 

duffer

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
You are aware that the majority of Test series - the vast majority - lose money, yes? And that night Test cricket is estimated to bring in up to three times as much revenue as daytime cricket?

You want to see no Test cricket except between England, India and Australia? Because that's where it'll end up if ways aren't found to make it profitable. No, it wouldn't work everywhere. No, it isn't perfect. But given that there is no thing as a timeless, unchanging "perfect Test" and given that it is possible to actually, y'know, solve problems, I find it risible to actually want it to fail.
Never knew this but given the crowds at most Test grounds it seems likely. How badly are they running at loss though? Would day/night Tests see them profitable even if say Bangladesh are touring Australia?
 

SteveNZ

Cricketer Of The Year
I stand by the wanting it to fail statement and I've heard similar sentiments. You're not saving Test cricket if you morph into something completely different. You're just creating another form of the game. I'd probably rather watch a 5-day, 5-night match to a LO one but if those are my choices, I'm pretty upset. I know how money talks and if the Adelaide match isn't a roaring disaster where the ball performs like a pink lemon and everyone hates it - and it's just a minor failure - TV will get its way until it fails spectacularly.
 

Spark

Global Moderator
Never knew this but given the crowds at most Test grounds it seems likely. How badly are they running at loss though? Would day/night Tests see them profitable even if say Bangladesh are touring Australia?
It's not even there though, it's in places like Australia where you do have decent crowds and massive TV audiences (which is more importance). I think it's a bit different in places where you have pay TV channels underwriting the thing because that gives the revenue stream a certain consistency, but certainly in Australia that's the case.
 

Top