Starting a test match earlier?

Question

What I find so stupid about test matches in England, whenever time is lost in a game it will be added on to the end of the following days play. But for instance at the moment, the test match between England & New Zealand a lot of time is being eaten out of the game because of bad light then the time lost is added onto the next days play but up to 7pm instead of 6pm. Now what I cant understand is why don't you start play an hour earlier than finish an hour later, surely if light is bad a 4pm in the afternoon is not going to be much better at 7pm, you have more of a chance of better light at 10am than 7pm, its just common sense, why don’t the ICC and umpires change this, you have more chance of a result than a game ending in a draw, with no team getting anywhere.

Answer 1

Too much moisture around at an earlier time.No spectators.People can watch after work if playing later.Light levels are very good at 7pm in may/june/july and early august.

The secret is to penalise heavily slow overates.time could be made up with quickened overs bowled.

A draw in test cricket is incredibly rare,these days due to very aggressive batting.

We are the most northerly test match nation,so we have the longest twilight of all the test nations,hence playing til 7pm.Most others will start at 10am if time lost.

l watched a test match in durban south africa,and at 4pm plays stops due to light fading incredibly fast.

Answer 2

The reason the play is not started earlier is that moisture on the ground are more and the batting team can face a row of quick wickets since moisture supports bowlers. So the cricket council decides on a time to start the play. Sometimes match are delayed due to strong moisture. This is due to the reason that no team gets undue advantage of the game due the natural reason. Bad Light is surely a nuisance and the best solution to play under lights in that condition. The overs are added to next days play since sometimes these added overs turns out to be the decider on the last day of the match.

Answer 3

Starting Test matches early in England is fine, in perhaps late June, July, and early August. However, the rest of the year this would create a nonsense out of the game, owing to the overnight dew. There would be too much moisture on the ground, play would be abominably slow, and wickets would tumble.

11:00am is the correct start time, and should not be changed.

Answer 4

Most probably the decision has been taken to add the lost time at the end of following day taking into consideration the dampness of pitch if play starts earlier and the disadvantage it will have to the batting side.