Cricket Australia faces fight to keep pink-ball Ashes Test as Steve Smith sides with England

Steve Smith has proven an unlikely supporter of England’s push to scrap the pink-ball fixture from the next Ashes series in Australia.

But things mightn’t be so simple, with Cricket Australia’s broadcast deal likely to prove a sticky wicket in the England and Wales Cricket Board’s crusade.

Days after Australia wrapped up their 4-1 Ashes series win, English press reported the day-night Test match was on the chopping block for England’s next visit over the 2029-30 summer.

The ECB’s concerns are said to lie with ensuring the competitive balance of the series.

England were given a mountain to climb when Australia claimed a hefty eight-wicket win in the second Ashes Test under lights; no English side has ever recovered from 2-0 down to win a five-Test Ashes series.

Australia have lost just one pink-ball Test match of the 15 they have played, whereas England’s defeat at the Gabba was their sixth from eight day-nighters.

England batter Joe Root questioned before that match whether the Ashes needed a day-night Test, introduced in 2015 to boost crowd numbers in the longest format.

The Ashes featured healthy crowds regardless, with the average figure of 47,754 the largest for any Test series played in Australia.

Shifting his attention to BBL duties at the Sydney Sixers, Australia’s vice-captain Smith proved an unlikely ally for the ECB’s calls to scrap the fixture from Ashes.

“I’m not a big fan of the pink ball, I can’t see the thing very well,” Smith said on Thursday.

“I don’t think you need it in Ashes series. I think we saw the crowds that we got throughout the series out here in all the red-ball games.”

But AAP understands Cricket Australia is not yet ready to relinquish the day-night Test, one of their biggest drawcards from a broadcast standpoint.

The day-night Test allows broadcasters to show Test cricket in prime time in all time zones, particularly valuable if played before school holidays.

Three sessions of the Gabba Test pulled an average television audience of two million viewers across Seven and the pay-TV broadcaster.

CA is bonded to play day-night Test matches every summer for the life-span of their current broadcast deal, which runs past the next home Ashes and into 2031.

During the Brisbane Test match, both CA chief executive Todd Greenberg and head of events and operations Joel Morrison insisted the concept was here to stay, including for the next home Ashes.

Smith will turn 40 just before that series and conceded he would probably have retired from Test cricket.

“More than happy (for it to be scrapped), but I don’t think I’ll be around for that,” he said.

“On the right wicket I think it works. Adelaide’s a good place for it, the wicket’s a bit of a featherbed so it keeps the ball together pretty well.

“It’s an interesting one. It’s such a different game.

“If you get on the right side of things in terms of when you’re batting and when you’re bowling, the game can turn really quickly, so I’m not a big fan of that. But I think it’s got a place somewhere.”

Australia’s next day-nighter is a one-off fixture against England in March 2027 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the MCG’s first Test match.

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