Australia propose day-night Ashes test against England for 2017-18 season

England’s scheduled Ashes tour in 2017/18 could include a day-night match for the very first time, according to Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland.

The CA chief believes that Pakistan will provide stiff challenge to the hosts, as they were outright winners the last time both teams faced each other in 2014 in UAE.

“We had experimented with the orange ball in the final of the trophy in 2011 and then with a pink ball in 2012 so the latest final will help us further assess the pink ball as Australia have offered us to play a day-night Test later this year”, Pakistan Cricket Board’s committee head Shakil Sheikh told.

Cricket Australia (CA) say it would be a “natural progression” after hosting the inaugural day-night Test against New Zealand at Adelaide in November.

With England touring Australia for the 2017-18 Ashes series, Sutherland indicated informal discussions had already taken place with the England and Wales Cricket Board about the concept.

Sutherland said the Adelaide Test had shown the cricket public’s curiosity and acceptance of day-night Test cricket.

He asserted that it might be a pure development for there to be an Ashes day-night Test match in 2017-18.

Cricket South Africa (CSA) had no formal representatives at the game but followed it with interest.

“They definitely know it will be on the agenda”. “We’ll have meetings in Dubai (in January) with a lot of the chief executives and certainly will be talking to counterparts at Pakistan and South Africa”.

“The point is that the hours of the test match if they are shifted in such a way that they move into the afternoon and evening, what Adelaide showed us is that more people will turn up to watch the matches and more people will be watching on television”.

Sutherland said England administrators were progressive thinkers and would be interested in the day-night Test concept.