Comments on: Day night Test cricket

By: Batting in Ned Kelly's Helmet

Batting in Ned Kelly's Helmet — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 04:11:45 +0000

Telstra Dome. Melbourne. Has a roof. It retracts. They have played cricket under it. In winter. Mike Hussey, of all people, managed to hit the roof. No-one else did. Its pretty high. There are still pigeons in there when the roof is closed. You could play, ‘who can get the worst chillblains?’, ‘cos its pretty cold in there.

Agreed though it was built for Australian Rules football, and cricket hasn’t been played there since.

Agreed also that cricket in England probably couldn’t afford it. It would have to be a country where cricket is popular!

By: Bert

Bert — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 11:00:55 +0000

If you google “cricket under roof” the first link is for an article titled “Flashing for a New Roof”. Now, I’m all for direct action, but seriously…

By: String

String — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 08:49:18 +0000

I’m much less inclined to go and watch a cricket match under a roof. It seriously limits the number of games you can play while watching cricket. Such as ‘Count the Pigeons’, ‘What Does that Cloud Look Like?’ and ‘Who Can Get the Worst Sun Burn?’. I can think of at least 5 days of cricket watching this summer alone that would have been seriously affected by these omissions.

By: Benno

Benno — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 08:35:44 +0000

Apart from the logistics of building a roof that were high enough, do you think cricket can really afford that? Just putting a roof on centre court at Wimbledon cost £100m, so you can prob multiply that by three for a cricket ground. Cricket does not have the money to make that viable

By: Batting in Ned Kelly's Helmet

Batting in Ned Kelly's Helmet — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 07:43:01 +0000

So you have day/night test cricket, you have counties and grounds competing for the rights to Test matches – would it not at some point lead to some entrepreneurial club building a ground WITH A ROOF? I would suggest, having been frustrated with the miserable weather in England so many times – and I live in Australia and only watch it on TV! – that this could be a very positive step forward.

By: steve

steve — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 02:54:44 +0000

I’d like to see SarahCanterbury’s concept extended to Dawn Day matches as well, but only in inhospitable climes like England where the sun gets up at 5am latest in cricketing season. That way I could catch the toss with a few pre-dinner drinks, and cheer the final runs with a late supper.

Stuff the players’ needs, and those few fans who actually still go to matches – the TV audience far outweighs them in importance these days.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:08:48 +0000

The rest of the world of the world has warmer evenings, but England’s long summer evenings are already used for cricket… Where else do you have full 40 over games on a local ground not starting until 2pm?

By: SarahCanterbury

SarahCanterbury — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:14:48 +0000

I think the idea of night Test matches overseas, other than in the West Indies, is a rather marvellous one. I then wouldn’t have to get up at silly o’ clock or stay up all night to watch them!

Lord’s should just supply spectators with sleeping bags, Alex. Invaluable bit of cricket watching kit in April/May in my opinion!

By: Spigot

Spigot — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:20:54 +0000

I think NASA have a few rockets to spare for a while.

By: alex

alex — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:55:27 +0000

If they’re scheduling day/night cricket in May in England, I hope Lord’s are going to buy massive versions of those gas heater things you get in pub gardens and stick one next to each of the floodlights.