Cricket: First class matches under lights trial for test

New Zealand Cricket is planning a round of Plunket Shield matches under lights early next year, with an eye on a possible day-night test with a pink ball the following summer. Photo / Getty Images

Plunket Shield games in February seen as prelude to possible day-night pink ball clash against Bangladesh.

New Zealand Cricket is planning a round of Plunket Shield matches under lights early next year, with an eye on a possible day-night test with a pink ball the following summer.

The round pencilled in starts on February 20 - the day the second test against Australia begins in Christchurch - when Auckland host Northern Districts at Eden Park; Central Districts play Wellington at Napier's McLean Park; and Northern Districts face Canterbury in Hamilton.

That could lead to New Zealand's first pink ball test, against Bangladesh next year.
The plan is still to be finalised, and there's a lot of ifs and buts to be signed off first.

But if all goes well with those Plunket Shield matches, on the back of feedback from the first pink ball test starting at Adelaide Oval today, NZC in the market for a day-night test.

Option for day-night first-class cricket in New Zealand are limited to those three venues.

There are no lights at Dunedin's University Oval, Hagley Oval in Christchurch, or Wellington's iconic Basin Reserve.

Wellington's Westpac Stadium has lights, but is seen as a limited-overs venue only, never having hosted a first-class game.

Pakistan (two tests next November), Bangladesh (two in December) and South Africa (three in February/March) are the incoming tourists next summer. November is thought too dewy at night; ditto, with Super Rugby well under way in February, there's similar climatic concerns.

Should the Adelaide test prove a fizzer in playing terms, or the Plunket Shield games not work, and player feedback is poor, things might change.

But NZC chief executive David White said yesterday, there is significant interest when there's a mood for change in the first-class game.

"In debate around the ICC's chief executives' table, there's been a lot of interest," he said.

"Everyone acknowledges outside England and Australia it's a big challenge getting test crowds. Certainly it's a concept we've be very receptive to."

However, NZC won't commit to a headlong march down the pink ball highway if enough question marks hang over it.