There have long been concerns about the visibility of the pink cricket ball in day-night Test matches, now new international research suggests it may create visibility challenges for some players with colour vision deficiency, raising questions about fairness and potential implications for player safety.
The pink ball was introduced for day-night matches over a decade ago, and in June this year the International Cricket Council (ICC) approved a trial of pink balls in Tests expected to be affected by bad light – subject to prior agreement from both teams.
Now, a study by academics from Australia, the UK and The Netherlands found players with Colour Vision Deficiency (CVD) struggle to see the pink ball around dusk, or contrasted against the crowd and grass.
Previous research shows about 9 per cent of male Australian grade-level cricketers have CVD, including the common conditions deuteranomaly – the most common form of red‑green colour vision deficiency, affecting how greens, reds, yellows, and related shades are distinguished – and protanomaly – a form of red-green colour blindness.
Dr Luke Wilkins, a specialist in visual, perceptual and cognitive skills in sport from the Centre for Sport and Human Performance Research at La Trobe University in Australia, said the study sought to understand how CVD interacts with the ball colour and match conditions.
“Cricket balls are hard and travel very fast, so anything that makes them harder to see warrants attention,” he said. “We also need to consider whether the choice of ball places some players at a greater disadvantage than others.
“Our study did not measure injuries or on-field performance, but it identifies situations where visibility could be problematic and where further investigation is needed.”
The researchers measured the spectral reflectance of new and old red and pink balls in the laboratory, as well as the backgrounds and illuminance of a day-night match at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London during the day, dusk and night.
They calculated the luminance contrast of the ball relative to the background for each combination of ball, time of day and background surface for a typical observer and for observers with CVD.
The results have been published in Sports Medicine.
“Our computer modelling suggests that different types of CVD create different challenges for seeing a cricket ball. These challenges depend on the ball’s colour and condition, the background, and the time of day,” Dr Wilkins said.
“For example, players with deuteranomaly (green colour deficiency) may struggle to see a pink ball against the pitch, potentially making batting more difficult. Players with protanomaly (red colour deficiency) may have more difficulty seeing it against the crowd or grass, which could affect fielding.”
Interestingly, they also found there are a few scenarios in which CVD could be beneficial, depending on the combination of ball colour, ball age, background surface and time of day.
“There is no single ball that provides the best visibility for everyone in every situation. However, on balance, our findings suggest that the red ball provides more consistent and equitable visibility across players and conditions,” Dr Wilkins said.
The findings reflect the experience of former Australian Test opener Chris Rogers, who has red-green colour deficiency.
In one of the first matches played with a pink ball more than a decade ago, during a friendly between English county teams in Abu Dhabi, Chris was unable to see the pink ball with green stitching contrasted against the black sight screen and the purple seats at the ground.
“I was facing an offspinner and I couldn’t pick the ball up in the sight screen,” he said. “For me it looked like dark on dark.”
While the screen was eventually changed to white and the ball seams to black to assist with visibility, Chris retired soon after. However, the pink ball was still an issue during commentating on day-night matches, where he struggled to follow the line of the ball through a dark shadow.
Chris said even the red ball could be problematic, especially when fielding and the ball was against the crowd or dark-coloured seats while in the air. To see the ball better, Chris began wearing sunglasses with red and yellow lenses designed to help amplify colour contrast, which he said made the colours ‘pop’.
Dr Wilkins said the findings added to a growing body of research showing that while the red ball does pose problems of its own, from a visibility perspective the red ball was likely to be superior across more scenarios and, perhaps more importantly, a more equitable solution across different players.
“Our findings give the ICC reason to review when and how the pink ball is used, particularly before expanding its use to address poor light,” he said.
The research was co-led by Professor Peter Allen from Anglia Ruskin University in the UK. Professor Allen has extensive experience researching vision in sport, including work that has helped inform classification systems for visual impairment in parasport.
Co-collaborators were Dr Oliver Runswick from King’s College London, Dr David L Mann from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Professor Mattew A Timmis from Anglia Ruskin University and co-lead Dr John Maule from the University of Sussex.
Read full paper: Not So Pretty in Pink: Computational Modelling of Cricket Ball Visibility with Colour Vision Deficiency
