Melbourne, Dec 29 : Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland has said that the idea of playing day-night Test cricket is still a number of years off which needed to be tested at different venues before it could be taken to the International Cricket Council for approval.

The concept is still under development, although there is hope of a trial day-night Sheffield Shield match next season, The Australian reported.

Sutherland said his organisation was waiting to hear back from the CSIRO, which is developing a special ball.

"I don't think it is going to happen next year," Sutherland said. "We are very serious about exploring it as an option, but there are a lot of technical aspects that need to be further explored. Once we''ve done that we might have a clearer idea about the time frame."

To play at night, cricket needs to develop a ball that is visible under lights and can last more than 80 overs. The red ball is difficult to see in the evening and the white ball used for one-day matches is not durable enough.

There have been experiments with yellow and orange balls, the latter were the best for batsmen but fielders found them hard to pick up. At this stage, it looks like pink is the natural colour for a night Test ball.

Night cricket is attractive to broadcasters, as it would allow the game to be shown in prime time when people have returned from work or the beach. (ANI)