From Test Beast to Night Beauty

Test cricket needs reinvention in South Africa. Not on the field, as reigning World Champions with a fiery bowling attack and feisty but limited batting line-up, but as a commercially sustainable entity. The Proteas are not top of the pile by accident.

The (not) annual New Year’s Test at Newlands is always well-attended and this year’s edition against England might have been sold out three-times over if the stadium was larger, but otherwise there is a dispiritingly low turn-out. The SA20 is filling stadia. Is it preference, or marketing? Or a lack of care.

Centurion Park was ‘awarded’ the Proteas’ second Test against Bangladesh from November 23-27. Monday to Friday, during school time. It rates amongst the most brutal administrative hospital passes of all time in SA. Titans CEO, Jacques Faul, is estimating the union’s financial loss for staging the fixture at approximately R1.7million. The province is the country’s most successful and stable. Which may be why the mother body handed them this still-born fixture.

If you have not read my two previous columns on this subject, you may like to. Apologies to those who have while I repeat myself: this carbuncle of scheduling can not only be healed, but reimagined into a formative turning point for the entire future of the greatest format. A rebirth with a healthy, sustainable future.

Start the Test match at 1:00pm each day with the final session beginning at 6:00pm and ending at 8:30pm, spanning the transition from day to night and mellowing the famous grass banks, continuously filling with families seeking their pre-ordered boerie and salad rolls, with the African sunset.

“It’s a lekker exciting prospect,” said Proteas head coach, Shukri Conrad, but not immediately. His initial reaction to the suggestion was caution: “There may be too many variables. We could face a very good pace attack at the wrong time of day…” said Conrad, rightly determined to reach the World Test Championship final again to defend the title.

Our conversation reflected on the bleakness for the players of attempting to win a Test match in front of 100 spectators and 50 security guards. Never mind the immediate financial fate for the Titans: “What if such a dismal prospect is used as ‘evidence’ that Test cricket is financially unsustainable, and even fewer fixtures are scheduled in the future?” I asked Conrad for whom,as with his players, Test cricket ranks far above the other formats.

“We’ll just have to make sure we get back to Lord’s to defend our title and keep Test cricket at the forefront of peoples’ minds,” he said.

Even if the Proteas did draw the ‘short straw’ by batting in the twilight when conditions are at their most challenging, the vast majority of international aficionados would back the Proteas to prevail against Bangladesh over the course of four innings. Conrad, of course, does likewise.

Venues like Kingsmead and St.George’s Park struggle to attract meaningful morning attendances at Test matches even with weekend days. They, too, could be transformed by a collective embracing of Test cricket which starts at lunchtime and finishes in good time for everyone to make their way home before it becomes a ‘late night’.

Faul is “one hundred percent” behind the idea acknowledging that “…even with the extra cost of lights it will give us a chance to break even and provide a memorable occasion.”

The social reality of today’s world (outside of England) means fewer and fewer people have the time or inclination to attend a full day of Test cricket. It’s time to accept that aiming a marketing strategy towards the second half of the day is neither regrettable nor a compromise. It’s just plain, common sense.

CSA did not schedule the Test as it is out of ignorance or spite. Their options were limited by the intransigence of Cricket Australia and the ECB who were inflexible with the dates of their tours to South Africa. Bangladesh had to be squeezed into the time remaining.

There is a CSA Chief Executives meeting scheduled for next week at which the possibility of playing day-night Test cricket in Centurion will be proposed. When Conrad was asked whether he would be open to the conversation, he replied: “Not just open to it, I look forward to it.”

What if things ‘go wrong’? What if South Africa are bowled out for 50 and lose inside five sessions? That’s already happened, in broad daylight at Newlands a couple of years’ ago. Nobody died or was injured. Do not be distracted by what happens on the field and how the pink ball behaves. This is a golden opportunity to think about the big picture and shape the future. Take it, CSA. Please.