New Delhi : The Indian cricket board (BCCI) has officially informed Cricket Australia (CA) that India will not play any Day/Night Test match on their tour Down Under at the end of this year. CA was insistent on having a pink-ball Test, which has been a convention of sorts for all touring teams in the past three years, but BCCI has made it clear that it will not deviate from the traditional red-ball matches.
With the Indian team management, headed by chief coach Ravi Shastri, intimating the Committee of Administrators (CoA) that the team will take at least 18 months to prepare for the Day/Night Test, acting board secretary Amitabh Choudhary was told to pass on the message to CA chief executive James Sutherland.
CA wanted the opening Test at Adelaide from December 6-10 to be a pink ball Test match. “I am directed to say by the Committee of Administrators that India would begin to play in the format only in about a year’s time. Under the circumstances, I regret to say that the proposed D/N Test cannot be played and all Tests will have to have the conventional structure,” Choudhary wrote in his e-mail to Sutherland.
Last week, Sutherland had told a radio station in Australia that India’s reluctance to play the pink-ball Test was primarily because of their desire to win the series. Australia have not lost a single Test match under lights played at home. On the other hand, among Indian players, only Cheteshwar Pujara and Murali Vijay have played Day/Night pink-ball matches in the Duleep Trophy.
