Players ‘guinea pigs’ for pink balls

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THE next era in cricket begins in a blaze of pink on Monday afternoon.

The only problem is, those doing the ushering aren't sure yet how it will pan out.

Cricket Australia has introduced a round of day-night Sheffield Shield matches to take its experiment with first-class cricket under lights to the next level.

Specifically, CA wants to learn how its new pink balls will behave under lights and against a black sightscreen as night falls with an eye to possible Test matches in coming seasons.

Victoria will host Tasmania at the MCG with all-rounder John Hastings admitting yesterday that the players felt a little like "guinea pigs".

Michael Klinger gets an early look at a few of the pink balls. Source: News Corp Australia

"My initial thoughts are they (the pink balls) are quite good — they're quite hard, so they come on to the bat well and it will be interesting to see if they swing as much," Hastings said at Bushrangers training.

"But we'll just have to wait and see — a good four days of Shield cricket will test them out.

"CA want to do something different (and) we're going to test that out thoroughly and give them feedback on how the process went.

"Nobody knows what to expect ... we think the hardest (time to play) will be that 8-9.30pm period (because) it probably hasn't been tested out as much under lights.

"But it's still a cricket ball — you've still got to bowl it, hit it and catch it."

Ben Hilfenhaus practices with a new pink ball at Tasmanian training at Blundstone Arena. Source: News Corp Australia

One Victorian with an extra concern is captain Matthew Wade, who is colour blind.

But Wade tried out the pink balls on Thursday and wasn't overly fazed, seeming to pick the ball up well in the nets.

"The interesting thing will be when the lights come on, that will be the challenge for me," Wade said.

"It's not so bad during the day, but we'll find out (under lights), I suppose."

Victoria's season is effectively over, sitting last with two rounds to play and not having banked a point since November 16.

The Bushrangers must win both remaining matches outright to avoid the ignominy of finishing last for the first time since 1996.

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