Day-night Tests may adopt Pink ball

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MELBOURNE: Pink or orange balls appear to be the most likely to be used in day-night Test matches as the International Cricket Council continues to carry out trials.

The ICC have recently been presented with research gathered by Cricket Australia, while the MCC have trialled the use of a pink ball in their traditional domestic season-opener against the county champions.

"The trials are aimed at determining the sighting qualities of the different coloured balls during day, twilight and night conditions as well as their colour retention ability," an ICC spokesman told The Australian.

"The tests are mostly positive with some reservations around batting in the twilight period.
"On the face of it, it appears to make little difference as to whether the ball is pink or orange."

Night Tests need a coloured ball because red ones are too hard to see under lights and white balls can only be used with coloured clothing. Until now, ball manufacturers have had trouble making a coloured ball that keeps its shine and hue.