Day-night Tests several years away, ideal ball is a 'problem'

Melbourne:

The much talked about day-night Tests are still "several years" away as finding an ideal ball for playing under lights remains a "very difficult problem" for the company entrusted with the job.

The Australian company which is trying to create an ideal ball for day-night Tests, Kookaburra's boss Rob Elliott says it would be some time before the concept of day-night Tests becomes a reality.

ICC chief David Morgan recently hopes to see day-night Tests within two years to revive sagging spectator interest in five-day games but Elliott said despite spending one million dollars on research and development so far, an ideal ball has still not been found.

"I don't know. I know Cricket Australia are hoping it might be a couple of years but in all honesty it could be several years.

"We'll be doing some trials but it's a bit open-ended. If we have to make some further changes (to the balls following the Australian Futures League trials), we'll have to go through the process again and so it will go on until we can give the administrators something that they can live with," Elliott told 'The Daily Telegraph'.

"It's a very difficult problem. It's hard to be definitive. I don't think anyone has the answer."

Elliott said the biggest problem is making sure that the ball does not wear out too early and lasts at least 80 overs.

"I don't believe any ball (other than red) has got 80 overs in it. There are materials out there that are very sophisticated and it would minimise scuffing and scratching, but that would make it hard to deteriorate and it would have a huge impact on the game," he warned.

"It's up to administrators to decide what they constitute as being acceptable and what's not acceptable. It's going to cost a lot of money and it has already cost a lot of money. We need to bear in mind the parameters of Test cricket and try to deliver a ball that does not in any way harm the integrity of the game," he added.

Elliott said any innovation aimed at preventing saving the ball from wear and tear would change the way the game is played.

"If we change the deterioration process (of the ball), are we changing the game? That's the dilemma we face. I don't think it's going to be solved overnight."

"Hopefully we can find the solution, but whether it's the perfect one, I don't know," he said.