Australia try pink ball in Sheffield Shield

The pink ball will be used in the first day-night Test match next month between Australia and New Zealand

Australia’s Test stars had their first chance to try cricket’s new pink ball in three day-night fixtures in the Sheffield Shield round on Wednesday.

The ball will be used in the first day-night Test match next month when the Baggy Green face New Zealand and the Black Caps were critical of it when they got the chance to first play with it last week.

But — after the manufacturer of the ball came out in its defence — the likes of Steve Smith and Peter Siddle looked in high spirits as all six Australia states played simultaneously.

Australia’s new Test skipper Smith was diplomatic when asked about the change to cricket’s oldest format at the weekend.

“It’s really exciting,“ he said, and former captain Steve Waugh shared the sentiment.“Test cricket is withering away in a lot of countries; Australia and England are the only two places where people watch Test matches,“ Waugh said.

Yet there has been scepticism and criticism of the new-type ball, designed to be more visible under lights than the traditional red one, with several players speaking out against it.

Senior Australian batsman Adam Voges said it did not hold up well in recent matches against New Zealand in Canberra.

“Both balls got chewed up pretty quickly,” Voges said after Friday’s Prime Minister’s XI one-day game against the Black Caps. “There wasn’t much pink left on it by the end of the game.”

New Zealand opener Tom Latham added that the pink ball deteriorated a little bit more than usual. Cricket Australia has pointed to an abrasive Manuka Oval pitch in Canberra as the cause, expecting the ball to hold up better in this week’s round of domestic Sheffield Shield matches.

There have also been concerns raised by the firm responsible for the ball-tracking technology to be used by broadcaster The Nine Network during the Test that it may not work with the pink version.

But Brett Elliott, managing director of manufacturer Kookaburra, said no cricket ball had gone through the level of testing and development that the pink ball had.