Australia keen to host day-night Tests

Cricket Australia chairman Jack Clarke has expressed his keenness to host day-night Tests but says there will be compromises and it will not be within the ICC's suggested time-frame. Clarke was responding to ICC president David Morgan, who had said he'd be "surprised and disappointed" if he didn't see the concept of day-night Tests materialise within the next two years.

"We are really keen for it to happen," Clarke told the Australian newspaper. "Why shouldn't people be able to come after work and see four, five or six hours?"

Without elaborating on what the compromises would be, Clarke said a fair share of fans might be resistant to change. "There's always going to be people saying 'why do you change anything'," he said. "But if you don't change anything you are going to go backwards at 100 miles per hour it seems to me. There's going to be some compromises, let's be honest about it."

The current format, Clarke said, had failed to draw in more fans and change was necessary to make the format more attractive. "We reckon we've missed a generation and we are going to make sure we don't miss the next generation, but we need to have change . . . it has to be an event and not just a cricket match in some regards," he said.

The report quoted Clarke as saying that with the Ashes due next year they would struggle to conduct a day-night Test in the time frame mentioned by Morgan, but he hoped to be able experiment with Shield cricket in the next few years.

Morgan, on December 16, had singled out Australian venues as ideal for the day-night Tests experiment. "If you look at a country like Australia with big stadia and very hot conditions, Australia is made for day-night Test cricket," he said. "Eighteen months ago, I wouldn't have been overly enthusiastic, thinking of the tradition and the records. But the way Test match cricket has changed over 130-odd years, I see [day-night Tests] as a very good reason for bringing the crowds out.