Barbados to host first day-night Test in West Indies
What's the story?
The Kensington Oval in Barbados has been finalised to host the maiden day-night Test to be played in West Indies. The visiting team will be Sri Lanka, who will be touring the Caribbean islands for a three-Test series in June. The first two matches will be hosted by Trinidad and St Lucia, while the match in Barbados will be the final game of the series.
In case you didn't know..
In addition to it being a day-night fixture, this will also be Sri Lanka's first ever Test at the historic venue. Also, this will be their first tour of the West Indies since 2008, when they had played 2 Tests and 3 ODIs. The Test series was drawn 1-1, thus marking Sri Lanka's first Test win in the Caribbean.
Thus far, a total of eight day-night Tests have been hosted since November 2015, when the first one was played between Australia and New Zealand at Adelaide. While West Indies have played two day-night Tests so far – one each against Pakistan and England – the Lankans' only floodlit Test came against Pakistan too. West Indies will officially become the sixth nation to have conducted a day-night Test at the time of occurrence of the match.
What's next?
Before West Indies play a day-night Test at home, New Zealand will have become the fifth country to have hosted one when they play England at Auckland in March, joining the likes of Australia, UAE, England and South Africa in the list.
Author's Take
With dwindling interests in the longest form of the game and Test match crowds only found in England and Australia, it was inevitable that all countries joined the list of experimenting with a pink-ball Test under lights.
Sri Lanka's tour to West Indies 2018 fixtures
Tour match: May 30 - June 1 at Brian Lara Cricket Ground, Trinidad
First Test: June 6-10 at Queen's Park Oval, Trinidad
Second Test: June 14-18 at Darren Sammy Cricket Ground, St. Lucia
Third Test (D/N): June 23-27 at Kensington Oval, Barbados