Playing time (cricket)

Games in the sport of cricket are played over a number of hours or days, making it one of the sports with the longest playing time, though sailing, yachting, road cycling and rallying are sometimes longer. Typically, first-class cricket matches are played over three to five days with, at least, six hours of cricket being played each day. One-day cricket matches last for six hours or more. Cricket therefore has special rules about intervals for lunch, tea and drinks as well as rules about when play starts and ends. These rules are outlined in Laws 15 (Intervals) and 16 (Start of play; cessation of play) in the laws of cricket

The game is only played in dry weather. Additionally, as in first-class cricket it is not unusual for balls to be bowled at over 130 km/h, the game needs to be played in enough daylight for a batsman to be able to see the ball. Play is therefore halted when it rains (but not usually when it drizzles) and when there is bad light. Some one-day games are now played under floodlights, but, apart from few experimental games in Australia, floodlights are not used for first-class games, including Test matches. Having said this, a day/night test match has been trialed between Australia and New Zealand in Adelaide, in November 2015 and was deemed a success. There are now suggestions that the Ashes series could be played under lights. The day/night test was played with a pink ball as opposed to the traditional red ball to aid visibility. Apart from some experimental One Day International series in Australia's roofed Etihad Stadium, professional cricket is played outdoors.

These requirements mean that in England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Zimbabwe the game is played in the summer.

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