LONDON: The traditional curtain raiser to the English cricket season will be the first four-day fixture to be played under floodlights using pink balls when it is staged in Abu Dhabi for the first time next year.
The experiment will take place at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium from March 29 when the Marylebone Cricket Club plays the county champion, which is currently Durham.
“We’ve been asking cricket authorities around the world to help us trial the pink ball under floodlights,” MCC head of cricket John Stephenson said in Friday’s announcement. “If this match is a success, it could help to reinvigorate test cricket. We have an opportunity to play our part for the good of the game and we’re determined to grasp it.”
Traditionally, white balls are used for one-day and Twenty20 matches and red balls are used for test and all other cricket.
But the MCC, which creates and upholds the rules of cricket, has been working with experts to determine the merits of a bright pink ball to compensate for visibility difficulties with white balls under floodlights. The MCC, which has no regular team, fields a side once a year for the curtain raising game.
“Although it is a disappointment not to have the traditional season opener at Lord’s we fully understand and support the reasons for that and are therefore honored to have the opportunity to take part in this innovative and historic match,” Durham head coach Geoff Cook said. “As the game of cricket generally is moving forward, the possibility of playing with pink cricket balls for the first time in a four-day match, under floodlights, is an experience that the players will be really looking forward to.” The same teams opened the 2009 season with a rain-hit draw at Lord’s. And Stephenson of the MCC said that, because of poor weather, staging the match at Lord’s at the start of April is “far too early in the year to play meaningful cricket.”
United Arab Emirates cricketers, as well as the best English county, and MCC University players can be selected for the MCC team. Michael Vaughan and Ian Bell were among the eight full internationals that were selected by the MCC for the 2009 fixture.
Heavy rollers banned
Meanwhile, the days when an English cricket team captain could take the fear out of a lively wicket by using a heavy roller are numbered.
In a bid to resuscitate the ailing county championship, English cricket administrators have unveiled rule changes that ban the big rollers and reward wins rather than boring draws. Heavy rollers have been the bane of bowlers for more than a century, since killing the grass hardens the surface .
This can take the sting out of a team’s bowling attack, stopping uneven or fast bouncing and providing great assistance to batsmen at the crease. While that can ensure matches go the distance — helping cash-strapped counties bring in revenue — the result is not always crowd-pleasing. Friday’s announcement by the England and Wales Cricket Board should liven up proceedings. “Heavy rollers deaden the pitch. If a captain wants to take some life out of the game then he will use heavy rollers to do so,” David Lloyd, who has formerly played for England and coached the national team, said earlier this year.
“If there is a certain length of grass on top, it acts like a trampoline, which gives you pace and bounce. That’s what every cricketer wants, whether they are a spinner, a pace bowler or a batsman.” The ECB changes will also see teams awarded 16 points for a win — up from 14 — and just three for a draw — down from four.
A maximum of five additional batting points and three additional bowling points are still available during each side’s first innings, but the threshold has been reduced from 120 to 110.
