Aussies, Proteas called out over rejection of radical new rule

South African great Shaun Pollock has called out Australia and the Proteas for turning down the newly available, radical option of playing with a pink ball in the Durban Test as an answer to bad light.

As per a rule introduced by the International Cricket Council (ICC) at the start of this month, a pink ball is allowed to be used provided the teams agree before the start of the match.

If an agreement is struck, the pink ball must be used for the entire game, and in the case of a match beginning with a red ball, it cannot be substituted out for a pink one.

Only 221 of the 270 allotted overs were completed over the first three days of the Durban Test, with poor light repeatedly forcing stumps to be called early.

Despite the substantial loss of overs, a result will almost certainly be reached given Australia set South Africa 421 runs to win and only needs to take another six wickets on day five to secure victory.

But spectators and viewers have nonetheless been robbed of seeing a considerable amount of cricket in the first Test, and there will inevitably be cases where a pink ball is not used and there’s subsequently not enough time for a result to eventuate.

“I’m not saying for one moment that we should have used the pink ball and played a day-night game. I just believe we should have used the pink ball for the day game,” Pollock said on the SuperSport broadcast.

“There’s a stigma that’s been created around the pink ball. First of all, they say, ‘Oh, it moves too much’. I tell you what – if Australia were 6-124 and we were using a pink ball, everyone would have said it was the pink ball’s fault. And then there’s another stigma around it – the pink ball gets soft. If Australia were 6-124 and got to 390, everyone in South Africa would have said it’s the pink ball’s fault. That it got soft.

“But the pink ball would have meant that we played 45 more overs of Test cricket yesterday (on day three) if we had used it. That’s why I’m keen to try and introduce it, and not just for day-night games, because in Australia, under the haze of seven to nine o’clock at night, it might seem like it does a bit more.

“I’m saying in a day game, where you know bad light is going to play a part, don’t be scared to use the pink ball.”

Pollock, who played 108 Tests and is one of South Africa’s greatest-ever cricketers, asked what would happen if the stakes were higher.

“If this was a final or a game where you had to reach the World Test Championship final, say it was 1–1 in the series, Australia playing South Africa and they had to get a result, and you said to them, ‘Well, let’s use the pink ball because we’re going to lose 100 overs to bad light’, do you think they’d agree or not agree?” he said.

Former Proteas quick Vernon Philander put forward a different view.

“They have to take it out of the hands of the players completely and enforce it from the umpires’ point of view that the pink ball will become in play when the light has faded enough,” Philander said on SuperSport.

"You are always going to have the argument of who is ahead of the game.

"I would like to see the ICC enforce it on to the officials to make that call."

Former Proteas star Ashwell Prince, who now works as an assistant coach in the South African set-up, disagrees with both Pollock and Philander.

“For me, outside of a day-night Test, it’s got to be a red ball,” Prince said when asked for his thoughts at stumps on day three.

“I think obviously some nations have played a lot more pink-ball cricket than others and so, therefore, to get both captains to agree is always going to be a challenge. To get both captains to agree to that, some teams will feel that they simply don’t have enough experience of it, so I think it’d be very difficult to get both captains to agree.

“But for me, Test matches are the red ball.”