Retractable roof & 4-day Test
As Colin Graves, Yorkshire's outgoing chairman, prepares to take over the chairmanship of the ECB and press for radical changes in the future direction of the game, he has already began to make big plans to shake-up world cricket.
His first plan is to construct a retractable roofing system installed at Headingley, which will become the first stadium in the world to have this facility, Yorkshire announced yesterday.
The roof will become the centrepiece of Headingley's new North/South Stand, and is due to be built in time for the 2019 World Cup and an Ashes Test against Australia.
The new technology will retract across the entire playing area ensuring that no days' of play will be lost to inclement weather.
Recent England internationals at Headingley have been dogged by bad weather and Yorkshire have concluded that only such a daring solution can make cricket in the north of England financially viable.
The All Sip Roof system has been developed over the past three years in the city of Gelsenkirchen in the Ruhr Valley, the industrial powerhouse of Germany.
Graves also confirmed that he is considering tabling proposals to shorten Test matches from five days to four.
"Personally, I think we should look at four-day Test cricket and play 105 overs a day starting at 10.30am in the morning, and finish when you finish as all the grounds now have lights," Graves, who takes up his role in May, told the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) website.
The ECB could not itself introduce four-day Test matches, but it could push for changes to the Test format in international negotiations.
“From a cost point of view, you'd lose that fifth day, which would save a hell of a lot of money from the ground's point of view and the broadcasters. I would look at that."
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