NEW DELHI: Cricket Australia (CA) has confirmed on Friday that three matches in the ongoing Sheffield Shield season will be day-night games. The move marks the return of pink-ball games into Australia’s first-class cricket competition after seven years.
The Sheffield Shield games between South Australia and Western Australia at the Adelaide Oval from November 23-27, followed by the Queensland-Victoria clash at The Gabba in Brisbane, scheduled for November 24-28, will be day-night matches.
The match between Tasmania and New South Wales, scheduled for March 15-18 at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart, will be the third pink-ball game of the ongoing season. The change in the schedule was finalised following collaboration between CA and State High Performance Departments.
In their home summer, Australia will play a pink-ball Test against India at Adelaide in the high-stakes Border-Gavaskar Trophy. India are also slated to play a two-day pink-ball match against the Prime Minister's XI at the Manuka Oval in Canberra between the first and second Tests.
CA added the primary purpose of the schedule change is to create opportunities for domestic cricketers and potential Test players to experience day-night conditions at first-class level.
"We are always exploring opportunities to further enhance the experience for domestic players and best-prepare them for the challenges of international cricket. Playing first-class matches at Test venues is important, and so too is exposure to day/night conditions, which have become a feature of the Australian Test summer over the past decade.
"With that in mind, we felt it was the right time to re-introduce Day/Night Sheffield Shield matches for our next group of international cricketers. We thank all stakeholders for their support in making this initiative possible in the current season, ” said Ben Oliver, Executive General Manager of National Teams.