‘Don’t like it’: Aussie coach pushes back on great’s radical idea

Australian coach Andrew McDonald has pushed back on a radical idea spruiked as an answer to poor light by former South African quick Vernon Philander.

On day four of the first Test between Australia and South Africa, Proteas great Shaun Pollock called out the two teams for turning down the newly available option of playing with a pink ball rather than a red one.

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.

Philander posed a slightly different argument to Pollock, saying umpires should have the power to substitute a red ball out for a pink ball mid-match to ensure play could resume despite fading light.

Philander’s idea was raised with McDonald after Australia’s 214-run win in Durban.

“I don’t like it,” the coach said.

“We’ve got the option to play with the pink ball at the start of the Test match, so that’s an option if you feel as though bad light’s going to interfere within the hours of play.

“I think we got enough Test cricket in here. Unique scenario, early (in the) season here, so you traditionally don’t play Test matches here.

“But to change a red ball for a pink ball (mid-match), I think it’s a bit chancy, really ... There’s so many layers to that.

“I’ll leave that up for others to debate, but for us, it’s a no.”

Bad light forced an early end to play on each of the first three days of the Durban Test, resulting in only 221 of 270 allotted overs being completed.

Speaking on the SuperSport broadcast, Pollock hit out over the “stigma” attached to pink-ball cricket and implored teams to not “be scared to use the pink ball”.

The boom of technology in cricket – the advent of software such as Hawk-Eye and Snicko – has taken power away from on-field umpires.

Under the condition floated by Philander, on-field umpires would receive some power back.

“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."

Delays and early finishes due to poor light have repeatedly marred the Sydney Test in recent years. The floodlights are helpful, but only for so long.

Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg vented his frustration as poor light disrupted this year’s SCG Test between Australia and England.

“There’s a lot of things I get frustrated with in cricket – bad light’s one of them,” Greenberg said on SEN radio.

“I caution those remarks against the remarks of players who said they couldn’t pick the ball up and it was really dark and those sorts of things, but I get frustrated that we don’t have a solution to this problem.

“We’re in the entertainment business. I can’t think of another business that continues to walk off in front of its fans.

“I preface that by saying it has to be safe for the players, clearly, but we’ve got big light towers here and we’ve got technology. I’m sure there’s a way we can make our way through it.”

Australia’s second Test in South Africa begins on Sunday.