Current and former Test stars have debated cricket’s controversial bad light rules after Wednesday’s frustrating opening day at the SCG.
Cricket’s most frustrating stoppage reared its head in Sydney on Wednesday with the third Test between Australia and South Africa stopped on day one for bad light before it was even 2.30pm local time.
Gloomy skies above the SCG saw play between Australia and South Africa come to a halt barely halfway through the day, setting a baseline reading that would be difficult to meet later in the afternoon for play to resume.
Rain ultimately complicated the situation further, but greats including Mark and Steve Waugh, Allan Border and Shaun Pollock questioned the decision to halt play because of bad light and suggested spectactors had been short-changed.
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Australian star Marnus Labuschagne, who was dismissed shortly before play was called off for the final time, admitted he also felt for spectactators but said player safety had to be factored in.
“They’ve (greats) all played, so they understand when it’s dark and someone is bowling fast,” Labuschagne said. “I think perhaps their decisions are coming more from the spectators’ point of view.
“I feel like that for the spectators. I walked (to go back on at one point) and then we didn’t go out, and I said, ‘well that’s the quickest way to lose spectators right there.’
“But the reality of the game is it’s got to be safe and when you’ve got two teams that are bowling fast, you can’t be out there when it’s too dark.
“It’s hard to argue because of course we want to be entertaining a stacked crowd. But it doesn’t always work like that.”
Under the rules, play cannot resume until the umpires’ light meter reading is better than what it was when play was first called off.
Kerry O’Keeffe flagged that there was sure to be “conjecture” later in the day over the decision, given it came so early in the afternoon when light is generally better.
“Sometimes it can give you a false impression of how dark it is. But this is the reading for the rest of the game, in the middle of the afternoon,” he said.
And indeed that situation came to pass.
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At 3.45pm, play was set to resume with the rain holding off, but the lighting proved to be worse than it was over an hour ago.
Players were waiting on the sidelines having warmed up again, but the umpires turned around and waved them off.
“You’re relying on the machinery to guide what happens moving forward,” Ian Smith noted at the time.
Play then resumed at 4.45pm, but only for about 15 minutes. Labuschagne was dismissed by Anrich Nortje and, just seconds later, umpires pulled the players off the ground again.
Mark Waugh felt that it wasn’t dark enough for play to be deemed as dangerous when bad light was initially called.
He said that play should have continued given the lights at the ground were turned on.
“I’d like to change the rules. I’m saying once the lights are on we stay on, simple as that,” Waugh said on Fox Cricket.
“I really don’t understand. If it was a pink ball, we’d be on there, if it was a red ball, ok it’s not perfect, it’s an outdoor sport, sometimes the light favours one side over the other.”
He added: “The ICC need to look at the crowd here, there’s 30,000 people here. Did Australia look like they couldn’t see the ball when they were batting? I think they saw it ok.
“Lights are on, we stay on. Simple.
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“There’s no way we should have went off when we did … I just think we’ve got to change our way of thinking.”
Meanwhile, Shaun Pollock lamented the fact that in a pink ball match, the same lighting conditions would have been deemed as safe.
Nonetheless, the rigidity in cricket’s laws means a red ball — which is harder to see — cannot be changed for a pink one midgame.
“It is funny in the game we play that you change it to a pink ball and we keep going. It’s just the nature of the beast,” he said.
“You kind of think, well, keep developing the pink ball to make it perform exactly like the red ball at all times, and then you’ve solved that problem forever and a day.”
Allan Border walked out into the middle of the ground during the delay and said he didn’t feel like it was too dark to bat.
He added: “The current light rule is too soft. We come off too easily.
“I think it’s something the game has to look at much more closely.”
After the second delay, Steve Waugh took to Instagram to join the chorus of complaints.
“Test cricket needs to realise there is a lot of competition out there and not using the lights when the players are off for bad light simply doesn’t add up,” he wrote.
“Lots of unhappy spectators who can’t understand the rationale and reason for no play.”
Nortje, meanwhile, agreed with Labuschagne’s sentiments post-match that erring on the side of caution was the correct call.
“It’s tough, because it was really dark at that stage, and it gets dark,” Nortje said.
“It’s not just the batting team, but fielders can’t pick the ball up in certain areas in the field, so it’s really hard to play, and then if a chance comes and it goes down, it’s just a hard one.
“To come off when it’s dark, it’s probably just the right decision.
“At a stage it can get unsafe, if the ball is maybe a bit harder and you’re coming in with two guys bowling quickly.”