ICC to look at using green-yellow balls in Test matches

These are enforced by the umpires, with no consultation to the players, as occurred on Saturday, when England were denied the opportunity to hit the 25 runs required for victory under floodlights in Abu Dhabi.

“There is no doubt it is one of those issues cricket has faced historically and we have not found a solution to it”, said Richardson.

“We have attempted in the past to say to the players, if you have floodlights and they’re good enough to use for Test cricket, we should just bite the bullet, and even if conditions are not as good as they might be normally, we should just play on and finish the day’s play. However, that approach wasn’t accepted by any of the teams as they felt it could lead to unjust finishes”.

Australia and New Zealand will put the theories to rest as they face off in the first ever day-night Test to be played with the pink ball late in November at Adelaide Oval.

Fielder and umpire safety must be considered as well as the batsmen, however, with neither benefiting from the sight-screens when trying to pick up the red cricket ball under floodlights. After initial apprehensions and excessive deliberation on the utilisation of the colour of balls for day-night Tests, the pink ball was settled on.

On Monday, Richardson was quoted in the Times suggesting a “greeny-yellow” ball could be used, but the 56-year-old clarified these comments in a press conference.

“We are pinning a few hope on developing a different coloured ball which we can use for day/night Test cricket and, if it’s good enough quality, long term, that we can use that for all matches which will help solve the problem”.

“It just came to mind, I was thinking of the tennis ball which they changed to a green-yellow colour”. After England bowled Pakistan out for 173 in the second innings, they had a target of 99, which they eventually fell short of by 25 runs at the close of play.

Richardson said the ICC would consider funding the DRS in all countries – so long as everyone was on board.

But Richardson said: ‘Anil Kumble is the chairman of our cricket committee and he’s been fully supportive of the process we’re now following. “He played is series where we first trialled it and a number of decision went against India which upset him for a number of years but he is now seeing the testing and is encouraged by that”.

Officials from the worldwide Olympic Committe are also due to meet with the ICC in the next month to discuss the possibility of cricket becoming an Olympic sport. Different formats could be up for discussion, including six-a-side, double-wicket cricket and a mixed game.