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Australia, South Africa to light up Test cricket

When South Africa tours Australia this December for a full series of Tests, the traditional form of cricket could take an innovative twist.

Both the Australian Cricket Board and the United Cricket Board of South Africa have argued a case for playing Test cricket under lights - and the proposal could be implemented for the first time in course of the coming SA tour, if the International Cricket Council gives its approval.

UCBSA boss Ali Bacher said that the motion to play Test cricket in day-night conditions would be tabled at the ICC meeting scheduled for London next week. "First class cricket is already played under lights in South Africa," Bacher said, adding that Mark Taylor's Australian team, in course of the tour to South Africa earlier this year, had played tour games in Cape Town and Newlands under lights because of bad weather, and had been impressed.

``If the ICC gives the go-ahead to turning on the lights in Tests, then the South African tour of Australia later this year will create history of sorts by being the first to be played under the new conditions," Bacher told the media.