Being nightwatchmen during the bright day

By itself, following cricket being played in the southern hemisphere comes with its own preset excitement. While we get ready to take out our woolies, watching Australia and New Zealand sweating it on the field in their summer has a surreal edge to it. On top of that, the match at the Adelaide Oval starting today is the first day-night Test played. This mixture of one-day internationals and Twenty20 games played under floodlights with the sanctity of the Test players’ uniform of white flannels should produce some happy confusion for players, spectators and, indeed, the sport itself. And, perhaps, to the beguiling charm of cricket.

The traditional way of watching cricket being played in Australia or New Zealand for us here in the subcontinent — and, indeed, other cricket-watching nations in the northern hemisphere — has been to wake up at unholy hours and follow an innings through dawn. Not with this Test, which starts at 2:00 pm local time, but very helpfully at 9:00 am IST. Globalisation may be the real name of the game. But with the advent of day-night Tests, what we here in India may be in for is the excitement and dhamaka of an elongated night game being watched in the sober comforts of broad daylight. Now that’s the ideal recipe to inject into the flagging spirits of Test match cricket.