Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) has not signed up to the latest breast cancer awareness campaign ... although it is doing its bit towards saving skin cancer by looking for ways to introduce day/night matches at Test match level.
This week they extended their experiment with pink balls to the traditional season opener to the County Championship between last season's champions Durham and the MCC Select XI. For the first time in history the MCC has switched this from Lords to the Shaikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
The MCC recently conducted a global survey and over half of those responding stated that they would be more likely to watch Test cricket if they could drop into a match after work.
While this is not currently a problem in the UK, countries where Test match attendances fail to meet expectations - such as New Zealand and the West Indies - have been keen to look for ways to boost attendance levels, and therefore revenue.
This match was notable for a few other 'firsts'. It is the first ever English four-day match to be played under floodlights and the first to be played with a pink ball.
Jon Lewis was the first to bowl with the new ball, although it was James Middlebrook who took the first wicket. It is believed that this is the first time a spinner has taken the first wicket to fall in an English season, although the fact the match was played in temperatures exceeding 34 Celsius (rather than five degrees and sleet in the UK this week) may also have been a contributory factor!
Last year the MCC commissioned a survey of cricket supporters in India, New Zealand and South Africa with, on average, at least half of the respondents confirming they would be more likely to attend Test matches if they were floodlit and played later in the day when many more are free to watch after work.
If matches are to be played under lights, the MCC realised that they needed to change the colour of the ball.
There is clearly something else going on here. The colour of the ball is important to MCC but not as much as the colour of money. By playing this match here, they are obviously hoping to forge ever closer ties with wealthy Abu Dhabi Cricket Club, with whom they already have a reciprocal three-year agreement.
If that is in the future, the pink ball's entry into the mainstream could be more imminent ... providing it passes muster.
