The first Test between Sri Lanka and New Zealand will, for the first time in 16 years, feature a rest day, on what would have been the fourth day of the Test. Why is this happening? We're here to explain.
Are the players just being lazy?
In an era in which even four-day Tests feel like a hard-sell, it does seem weird to have a match that stretches across six days. But no, the reason is that Sri Lanka is holding its presidential election on Saturday. These are the first major polls since the country overthrew its last president in 2022, and so kind of a big deal.
And while the New Zealand players are free to relax at any of Galle's beaches, most Sri Lanka players will be traveling to their electorate to vote. While this is simple enough for someone like Kamindu Mendis - a Galle local - it does represent a challenge for many others.
The team is in fact organising a bus for those voting in Colombo, soon after play on Friday. They are expected to vote on Saturday morning and return. Some players must travel even further. Asitha Fernando is going to his electorate near his hometown Katuneriya, roughly 175 kilometres from Galle. Others, such as Lahiru Kumara, will go all the way to Kandy, about 225 km away.
In addition to the players, many groundstaff, journalists, commentators, match officials, and board staff will also travel to vote.
Couldn't they have scheduled the Test around the election?
Not really. The Tests were being planned long before the election date was announced. And as New Zealand have a tight playing schedule - this series sandwiched between stints in India - the schedulers say the clash was pretty much unavoidable. Though, given the New Zealand vs Afghanistan match that was supposed to be played in Greater Noida did not see a single ball bowled, perhaps in retrospect they could have rocked up to Sri Lanka a few days earlier.
Has this ever happened before?
Rest days were actually pretty common in Tests, right into the 1990s, so this is far from unprecedented (there's a fact to throw at people who say cricketers had it tougher in decades gone by). In fact, it's not even unprecedented for Test matches to take a break for an election - the same thing happened in 2008, to allow for Bangladesh's parliamentary polls that year, also against Sri Lanka. That was the most recent rest day in the game.
If the game goes till Monday, won't it effectively be a day six pitch?
They will, of course, cover the Galle surface and keep it under wraps on Saturday, to prevent the sun and wind from drying it out.
Perhaps the players will be fresher as a result?
Again, not really, in the medium term at least. What the boards have actually done is steal a "rest day" from in between the first and second Tests, and plonked it on September 21.
There are only two free days between scheduled day five of the first Test, and day one of the second Test. This means there are 10 scheduled Test-match days in a 13-day period, which is normal for a two-Test series.
They have been spared having to travel to another venue, however. The second Test will also be played in Galle.