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De Villiers 'not too keen' to play twilight Test

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ANI Cape Town
Last Updated : Apr 20 2016 | 10:42 PM IST

South Africa Test captain AB de Villiers has expressed his concerns over the proposed day-night Test match to be played against Australia later this year and claimed that a few players of the host nation are also reluctant to go ahead with the game.

Australia are scheduled to host South Africa in a three-match Test series in November, with the final match in Adelaide intended to be a day-night Test.

"At the moment, we are not too keen on playing in the proposed day-night Test match due to a few concerns that have come from a number of sources involved in the maiden Test played last year," de Villiers was quoted as saying by a leading South African news website.

"We had a meeting with Steven Smith and some of the Australian players when they toured here earlier this year, and the consensus from our talks were that there are just too many unknowns. Players from both teams were reluctant to go ahead with it," the swashbuckling batsman added.

De Villiers believes that playing a day-night game against Australia could bring about a 'fundamental change' to the itinerary considering the series could turn out to be a fight for the number one spot in the rankings.

Besides the potential tussle for the numero uno position, de Villiers has raised doubts over the durability of the pink ball and the usage of 'doctored' pitches for this format.

On Tuesday, the South African Players' Association showed reluctance over the disadvantage their players might face on account of having not played a day-night Test at any level.

Last year, Australia and New Zealand had played the inaugural day-night Test at the Adelaide Oval, which went on to pull record number of crowds and huge television viewership.

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First Published: Apr 20 2016 | 10:29 PM IST

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