Pink ball cricket in New Zealand awaiting approval

The pink ball is set to make its way to New Zealand cricket. Photo / Getty

A proposed Plunket Shield round under lights in February is awaiting final approval from New Zealand Cricket.

Following the first day-night test at Adelaide at the end of last month, NZC officials have raised the idea of a complete round of pink ball first-class cricket. A round starting on February 20 has Auckland facing Otago at Eden Park; Northern Districts hosting Canterbury at Hamilton's Seddon Park and Central Districts playing Wellington at McLean Park in Napier.

Those are three of only four grounds in New Zealand with floodlights, the other being Westpac Stadium in Wellington.

NZC are doing due diligence on a range of aspects, including light strength, resource management and ground capacity.

It's likely a final decision is about a week to 10 days away.

"If we can do it we will, but we want to do it properly," NZC manager of cricket Lindsay Crocker said yesterday. "We want to make sure the grounds are well able to hold a pink ball game before we embark on it."

All three grounds host day-night ODIs with the white ball, which would suggest switching to pink balls should not be a major obstacle.

However, one problem to be sorted would be if, say, one or two of the grounds are deemed suitable, but the others are not.

Looking further ahead, a test against Bangladesh in Hamilton has been identified as a possible fixture for the first pink ball test in New Zealand. But there's a pile of work to be done before that is any more than an idea.

Crocker, who was in Adelaide for the day-night test, was impressed with commercial aspects around the occasion, and player visibility issues received a pass; now playability is the issue under investigation.

That includes how successfully players were able to focus on the ball, and whether, because the conditions were set up for the match to succeed, it became too bowler friendly.

More grass was left on the pitch and outfield partly as a result of an AC/DC concert a few days before the test began for which several hundred square metres of turf had to be relaid. Had it been cut as short as normal, the effect may have been a scalping of the grass.

The ball kept its condition better with the lusher outfield and grassier than usual pitch. Cue bowlers' delight. Finding the right balance between bat and ball is among the next considerations.

NZC need to consider the viability of pink ball cricket in the New Zealand evenings.
Crocker cited Australia and South Africa are ideal locations for day-night tests, on climatic grounds.

"It really worked very well in Adelaide in December. We've got to ask ourselves whether it does have application here and we're not going to charge at this," he said.

"It's not a matter of buying a couple of boxes of pink balls, turning on the lights and having a game. We want to do all our due diligence that we are doing it for the right reasons in our circumstances."