WITH the first-ever day-night Test starting today between Australia and New Zealand at the Adelaide Oval, the game enters into a new era which in times to come may revolutionise this longest format as much as it has over the years taken limited-over international games to a different level.

Test match cricket -- the mother of all the formats -- could become as attractive and crowd-pulling as ODIs and T20s have become since they first started before switching over to day-night matches.

In 138 years since it first started in 1877, Test cricket has weathered the storm and crisis situations to keep the game going as it began.

The format at the same time has maintained the age-old tradition of playing in whites and with a red ball and white sight screen besides protecting the sanctity of the glorious game which it has been.

This surely is going to see a huge change if it catches up. Having had a lot of experiments over the last few years at every level a pink ball will be used and obviously there will be black screen instead of white for the first time in a Test.

But I sincerely hope they do not change into colour clothing instead of white, not for the time being at least.

The puritans obviously will hate to see this happen to Test cricket and may raise their eyebrows as they did when ODIs came about and the Australian media tycoon Kerry Packer introduced World Series cricket in 1977 with, drop-in pitches, white ball, black screen, coloured clothing and floodlit cricket.

It did not take long though for the doubters to realise what favour Packer had done to the game to keep it alive and worth following. He had come to the picture when ACB (Australian Cricket Board) denied him the rights to televise matches in Australia for his Channel Nine and instead preferred ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) to hold the rights.

Angry Packer then secretly recruited all the great players of the time except those from India offering them huge sums to feature in his WSC in Australia. When the MCC banned English players to play for him, Packer went to court in London challenging their ban and won the case.

I would go every day to the High Court in London to follow the proceedings and met Packer as well who proved to his detractors later that they were wrong and he was right.

With the time the game also needed a change to make it viable and worth marketing. Eventually he got the rights for his Channel and compromised with world cricket boards to abandon his WSC and release the players.

But before Packer did that he pioneered day-night games which is also known as floodlit cricket by organising ‘Supertests’ at VFL Melbourne in which only just over 2,000 people watched but when he staged it under floodlights at the Sydney Cricket Ground with the same side Australia v West Indies a year later in 1979, the ground was flooded with people. Nearly over 44,377 attended. Australia won by five wickets and it all started.

From the first ODI in 1971 between Australia and England at Melbourne after the Test between the two was converted into a one-day game because of three lost days the limited-overs games have become the most popular form of cricket, T20s even much more in demand.

It was in 2012 that the ICC came to a decision to try day-night Tests. Apprehensions about organising it however delayed the launch because of experiments made to use the kind of ball which could be used.

Today’s launching of the floodlit Test will no doubt heralds a new chapter in the game’s history and if catches the sensibilities of those who love and follow the game then sky will be the limit. And at least the countries who have dwindling crowd attendance may reap rich harvest of it in times to come.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2015