'Don't be scared' - Pollock bats for pink-ball switch for light-affected Tests
Shaun Pollock wants teams to embrace the use of the pink ball in day Tests too • ICC via Getty Images
Former South Africa captain Shaun Pollock wants the "stigma" around the use of the pink ball in traditional Test cricket to go, especially at venues where light could be an issue. He urged teams to not be "scared" of the pink ball. Around 45 overs were lost to bad light over the first three days of the ongoing first Test between South Africa and Australia at Kingsmead.
"I'm not saying for one moment that we should have used the pink ball and played a day-night game," Pollock, part of ICC Cricket Committee and working as a commentator in this series, told the host broadcaster. "I just believed we should have used the pink ball for the day game. It is not irrelevant because if you use the red one, all of a sudden you can't play Test cricket past bad-light time. But if you use the pink one, you can."
Following its board meeting in June this year, the ICC approved a move to enable a switch from the red ball to the pink ball before the start of Test matches, if both captains agree, to reduce losses of play to bad light. The pink ball offers better visibility in gloomy conditions or under floodlights than the red ball, but had, until now, been used exclusively in day-night Test matches.
The pink-ball switch has yet to be availed of in a day Test.
"If this was a final or a game where you had to win to make the World Test Championship final and it was one-all in the series, and Australia were playing South Africa and you said to them, 'Let's use the pink ball because we are going to lose 100 overs to bad light', do you think they would agree or not agree?" Pollock said on Monday, the fourth day of the Test match.
"There is a stigma that has been created around the pink ball. First of all, they say that it moves too much. But I tell you what, if Australia were 124 for 6 [their score on day one of the Durban Test] using the pink ball, everyone would have said it was the pink ball's fault.
"There is another stigma around it - that the pink ball gets soft. If Australia were 124 for 6 and got to 390, everyone in South Africa would have said it was the pink ball's fault and that it got soft. But the pink ball would have meant that we would have played 45 more overs of Test cricket if we had used it and that is why I am keen to introduce it.
"I am saying in a day game when light is going to play a part, don't be scared to use the pink ball."
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