Day-night Tests locked in for Australian summer until 2031
Day-night Tests will remain an annual part of Australia's home summer until at least 2031, with Adelaide and Brisbane both in line to still host pink-ball matches
After Joe Root questioned the need for the format in the Ashes this month, Cricket Australia (CA) chief executive Todd Greenberg on Wednesday shut down any talk of it being stopped.
Instead, the CA boss insisted it was a key part of Test cricket's evolution and part of the sport's TV rights deal that expires in 2031.
Australia will host New Zealand for four Tests next summer in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, all of which will be red-ball games.
Australia's Alex Carey scores his maiden Ashes century right when his team needs it on day one of the third Test at the Adelaide Oval. Follow live.
But a 150-year anniversary Test between Australia and England at the MCG, set for March, will be a day-nighter.
Beyond that, though, it will continue to remain a core part of the Australian summer.
"The night session [at the Gabba] has doubled the number of viewers we would get for the last session here today," Greenberg said on Wednesday.
"It gets more people watching it, more people engaged in it.
"It's in our broadcast contracts until 2031 that we will play a pink-ball Test. So it's not going anywhere."
Australia have hosted more than half the day-night Tests ever played.
Wednesday's third Test in Adelaide is just the third day fixture in the city in the past decade, after the pink-ball match was instead played in Brisbane earlier this month.
Travis Head has called for the fixture to return to Adelaide, while South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas has been vocal in his desire for it to be a day match.
"We've got two distinct possibilities, in Brisbane and Adelaide, they both work well," Greenberg said.
"We've got a bit of time to look at that. We're open to consider both, and maybe even mix and match a bit over time.
"That last session in Queensland last week was unreal."
In other scheduling news, Australia's ODI series against Pakistan has been moved to June from March.
That will precede two home Tests against Bangladesh in Mackay and Cairns in August, before Australia play three Tests in South Africa in October.
Meanwhile, Greenberg said talks were underway with the ECB around preparations for the 2027 and 2028–29 Ashes.
England's lead-in to this summer has been heavily scrutinised after they opted against tour games and suffered thumping defeats in the first two Tests.
Greenberg said he would be open to English players featuring in the Sheffield Shield to help them prepare, as Australians often do in UK county cricket.
States can currently have one overseas player on their books each season, but rarely do.
"As the global world changes for cricket, this concept that we lock down our own parts and our own systems without some sort of broader knowledge of what's happening around you [isn't realistic]," Greenberg said.
Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenberg opens up on the future of day-night Tests in the future summer schedule.
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. I was just trying to say anything that makes our dying format more exciting/pulls more people should be tried/experimented with.
