Under Lights: How Test Cricket Learned to Play at Night | THE LONG FORM Ep. 5

THE REBEL

1977: Kerry Packer switches on the floodlights; a white ball against black sightscreens. A year later, more than 44,000 fill the SCG at night.

THE ONE-DAY GAME

1979: the first official day-night international. By 1992 the World Cup had lights, coloured kits and a white ball. Test cricket still waited.

THE PROBLEM

Red is hard to see, white discolours. The answer was pink: trialled under lights in Abu Dhabi in 2010, approved in 2012.

ADELAIDE

27 Nov 2015, 36 years to the day after the first night international: 123,736 admissions across three days.

THE PINK ERA

Australia won their first 11 day-night Tests, until Shamar Joseph's 7 for 68 at the Gabba. In March 2027 Australia and England return to the MCG, 150 years on, under lights.