Day-Night Ashes Test still part of Cricket Australia’s plans | CricTracker

Cricket Australia has stated that they are going to schedule a pink-ball Test in the 2029-30 Men’s Ashes series, despite reports that the series will not feature one.

In a broadcast deal running till 2031, it is compulsory for the board to organise a day-night Test in every season, due to its boosted viewership numbers.

Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenberg stated that England have not requested pink ball games to be dropped and how it works in Australia.

“They haven’t requested it [to be dropped]. Pleasingly, we don’t play them here until 2029, so I’ve got a little bit of time to work this one out. It’s a part of our broadcast contracts. It’s clearly a big part of our summer [and] it clearly works here in this country,” Greenberg told SEN radio

“We’ve shown it works in Adelaide. It certainly worked last year in Brisbane. It’s our plan to continue at least one of those in a summer. If we need to work with our comrades at the ECB to help them prepare better or have practice matches, we’ll do all those sort of things. We’ll have that dialogue if and when needed,” he added.

He further iterated that the ticket sales from these games are solid and the timings means fans from England do not have to tune in at odd hours to watch the games.

“I think the ticket sales send us a very strong message that people will turn up,” Greenberg said. “It’s clearly a better time zone for those in England to be able to watch it on broadcast. It’s not school holidays at that period of time, so I am hoping that kids and families can finish their days at school and leave work early and be at the ground.”

“I’m not suggesting for one minute that every Test match should be a pink ball game, but pink ball has a place to play in this country. Anyone who is against it just needs to look through the prism of we’ll have double the amount of people watching a particular session than we ordinarily do, and you can’t turn away from that,” he said.

England and Australia are due to play a one-off, pink-ball Test at the MCG in March 2027, celebrating the 150-year anniversary of the Ashes.

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