Steve Waugh, the former Australia captain, has backed day-night Tests and suggested some unorthodox tweaks to revive interest in one-dayers.
"I would have loved to play day-night Test cricket," Waugh said, speaking to Harsha Bhogle on Cricinfo's Opening Up interview show. "I think it is exciting, brings another dimension to the game.
"People want a bit of change, they want that excitement. Why not bring that into Test cricket? We have got it in Twenty20s. Let's get a pink ball in and play a day-night Test if it is possible."
Waugh said the concept needed to be thought through, however, since it wouldn't work everywhere. "Obviously in England it is not really possible because it doesn't get dark till 10 o'clock in summer. Maybe in the subcontinent the dew might make it impossible. So you've got to have common sense around it as well."
Waugh was optimistic about the future of Test cricket. "Quality always survives," he said. "As a cricketer I think you've got to be true to yourself. Why did you take up the game? To fulfill your potential, and you can't do that by playing Twenty20 because you can't bat for a whole day and you can't bowl 30 overs. And as a cricketer I think it wouldn't be that satisfying if I couldn't get out there and technically, mentally and physically challenge myself against the best players in the world over five days."
Waugh said a way to spruce up one-day cricket, especially the middle overs, could be to convert fours to sixes and sixes to nines to get the batsmen to play more shots. "Maybe the bowlers won't be too happy, but on the positive side, they have more chances of getting wickets when the batsmen are attacking them."
He was also in favour of giving the bowlers more incentives to restore balance in the game. As a member of the MCC's World Cricket Committee, he said he had discussed some radical ideas to that end. "We talked about the possibility of getting the seams a bit larger, even increasing the number of seams to eight."