What is Pink-Ball Cricket?

The ICC T20 World Cup 2020 might just be the biggest event in cricket next year. There are actually two T20 World Cup tournaments next year: Men’s and Women’s T20 World Cups. Cricket fans all around the world are already looking forward to these events. Host country Australia is preparing for these two big events. The country one of the few countries where pink ball test cricket is embraced.

Pink ball cricket is also called Day/Night cricket. Basically, this is a cricket match that is played in the afternoon until evening. Since these cricket matches are played in the nighttime, floodlights are used to light up cricket fields and stadiums. Pink balls are used in these matches, thus the match getting called Pink ball cricket.

Most cricket matches are played during the daytime so the concept of pink ball cricket is not widely accepted in the cricket community. Australia is one of the few countries that advocates this cricket match. Pink ball cricket is also mostly played in Test cricket format. 

There is a high possibility that pink ball cricket will eventually only be played in Australia. Cricket Australia Head of Cricket Operations Peter Roach agrees that the support for pink ball is slowly dwindling. “We’re not seeing a lot of these around the world at the moment. We really are preparing our players for day-night Test matches in our country, because there are few other countries who have expressed the same desire we have to play them,” said Roach.

Other national cricket teams that play pink test cricket today are:

• Pakistan

• New Zealand

• West Indies

• England

• South Africa

• Sri Lanka

The most recent pink ball cricket match (AUS vs SL)  was held from January 24 to 28 this year. The next match (AUS vs PAK) will be held in December this year. Australia and Pakistan plays at the Adelaide Oval in Australia. 

Pink ball test cricket is one of many cricket events this year that fans can watch while waiting for the T20 World Cup tournament next year. If you’re wondering about the teams playing in next year’s World Cup, you can visit your favourite cricket site now and look up the world cup schedule for next year’s tournament.