COLOUR COORDINATION: Bad light in the first Proteas-Aussies Test reignites the pink ball debate

South Africa will be desperate to draw level with Australia in the two old foes’ second Test after being drubbed by 214 runs in the opening match of their three-game series, which finished earlier this week in Durban.

Starting on Sunday, 18 October, the next instalment in the trilogy will be played at St George’s Oval in Gqeberha, and the final one is set to take place at Newlands in Cape Town from 27 October. To ensure that the last game is not a dead rubber, the Proteas need victory in Gqeberha.

The return of Kagiso Rabada to lead the bowling unit will be a welcome boost after South Africa’s decision to field two premier spinners in Durban did not yield the required results. Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer managed four wickets between them, but they were often successfully targeted by the Australian batters.

Although Rabada will return after being rested for the first Test as a precaution, the likes of Lungi Ngidi, Kwena Maphaka and Ottneil Baartman remain sidelined.

The Proteas will have learnt some tough lessons in their first Test match since November 2025 and will look to implement them to salvage the series, but a major talking point from the match in Durban was the light, or lack of it.

For the first three days of the battle at Kingsmead Stadium, play ended prematurely because of bad light. As a result, only 221 of the 270 allotted overs were completed during those days as overcast skies dominated the storyline. On each of them, more than an hour’s play remained.

During the sixth over of Australia’s second innings on day three, Nic Maddinson flicked a delivery from Wiaan Mulder – who shone for the South African bowlers in the match – towards deep square leg. Owing to the fading light at Kingsmead, fielder Ryan Rickelton never saw the ball as it flew right over his head for six.

In fact, it almost struck him squarely in the head, and he indicated that he had completely lost sight of the ball after it left Maddinson’s bat. This immediately prompted the umpires to consult their light meters and end the day’s play early.

Fortunately, the remaining two days of the game were not affected, ensuring that the Baggy Greens cruised to a comfortable win. However, how events unfolded in the first three days saw robust debates re-emerge about whether the two rivals should have opted to use the pink ball to combat the bad light, as opposed to the traditional red ball used in Test cricket.

Cricket’s evolution

Just like any number of sports around the world, cricket is constantly evolving, and new rules and innovations, such as day-night Tests, are introduced in the belief that they will improve the game. The first international fixture of this kind took place in November 2015 when Australia tackled New Zealand.

Significantly, the two teams used a pink ball, as opposed to the red ball so synonymous with history-laden Test cricket. Australia won the low-scoring match by three wickets on the third evening.

Despite the briefness of the battle, the ­verdict was overwhelmingly positive in terms of key targets such as crowd engagement, with about 124,000 fans descending on the Adelaide Oval over the three days. The matches began around 2pm, whereas Test matches generally start around 10am.

High ticket prices, early finishes to five-day games (due to weather conditions) and the popularity of T20 cricket were the primary drivers for that experiment in the hope that it would arrest the downward spiral of attendance in Test cricket, whose history dates back to the 1800s.

Of course, with the red ball being too dark for the players to see, even under artificial light, the solution was the pink ball. However, as Test players have since confirmed, the ball’s visibility during late afternoon natural light is fine, but the brief transition period between dusk and full floodlights results in accelerated swing and reduced depth perception.

Another issue is groundskeepers often leaving extra grass on the pitch to prevent the pink ball’s extra lacquer coat from wearing off too quickly against a rough surface. This favours seam bowlers early on and robs ­natural, dry-pitch spin bowlers of pitch deterioration, which they thrive on in traditional Test conditions. The ball is also said to soften much quicker than its red counterpart.

More trials and testing

Nevertheless, a lot of strides have been made to ensure the pink ball behaves as closely as possible to the red ball used traditionally in the Test format. Of course, the red ball today is significantly different from the one that was used in Test cricket in the 19th century.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) recently approved a trial period during which international Test teams can agree to use the pink ball even if they are not playing a day-night Test. However, both captains must agree to this before the start of the match and mid-match switching to the red ball is not allowed. If teams start a Test match with the pink ball, it must be used throughout.

On the back of the frustrations experienced in the Durban Test between the ­Aussies and Proteas, which wasn’t a day-night match, South African legend Shaun Pollock said the two teams should have chosen the pink ball to ensure that no overs would be lost.

“I’m not saying for one moment that we should have used the pink ball and played a day-night game,” Pollock told SuperSport. “I just believe we should have used the pink ball for the day game. Because if you use the red one, all of a sudden you can’t play Test cricket past bad-light time. But if you use the pink one, you can.”

“If this was a final or a game where you had to win to make the World Test Championship final and it was one-all in the series, and Australia were playing South Africa and you said to them, ‘Let’s use the pink ball because we are going to lose 100 overs to bad light’, do you think they would agree or not agree?” Pollock added.

“There is a stigma that has been created around the pink ball, one of those being that the pink ball gets soft. If Australia were 124 for six and got to 390, everyone in South Africa would have said it was the pink ball’s fault and that it got soft [and made bowling difficult],” the former fast-bowler stated.

“But using the pink ball would have meant that we would have played 45 more overs of Test cricket. That is why I am keen to introduce it. I am saying in a day game when light is going to play a part, don’t be scared to use the pink ball,” said Pollock.

As T20 continues to thrive while Test cricket suffers from being too traditional (as seen by the poor attendance in Durban), such debates are only going to become more prominent. DM

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