After staging the final of its premier domestic tournament under lights early this year, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is now backing the ICC's idea to introduce day-night Test matches.
Along with the controversial Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS), the future of day-night Tests is one of the subjects that is being discussed at the ICC's ongoing meeting at Lord's, London. The feedbacks from the PCB and Cricket Australia (CA) along with the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) which experimented with floodlit first-class matches is supposed to play vital role in making a decision on future of day-night Tests.
Though the MCC and CA's views are yet to be revealed, the PCB has given thumbs up to the idea on basis of its experiment. The PCB hosted its first official day/night first class match -- the final of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy that was played between Pakistan International Airline and Habib Bank at the National Stadium in Karachi.
Played with an orange ball after mutual consent of both teams, the final though failed to draw enough crowd.
PCB officials are, however, optimistic about the future of day-night Tests. "It was a successful experiment," PCB's Director Domestic Sultan Rana was quoted as saying in "The Express Tribune".
"We have sent a positive report to the ICC [International Cricket Council] and the idea should go on at the top level," he added.
Rana said the report that has been sent to the ICC was prepared after taking feedbacks from the competing players, both team managements, umpires and the other boards officials who were assigned to make their assessment.
"It was a comprehensive report that included feedbacks from all those involved in the match," he said.
Rana played down post-match reports that suggested some players were unhappy with the experiment, citing weak sighting under lights. "We got mixed reactions from players but the majority of them had no issues and backed the idea," he said. "It's not possible to get the same viewpoint from all stake holders and the issues raised were not serious and can be resolved."