/world sport
LONDON, England -- Pink balls will be used in selected cricket matches in England next season as experiments are conducted to see if they are more visible to players and fans.
Red balls could be under threat as cricket's rulers prepare to experiment with a fluorescent pink variety in 2008.
The Marylebone Cricket Club, which creates and upholds the rules of cricket, is working with scientists at Imperial College in London to determine the merits of a fluorescent pink ball.
Traditionally, white balls are used for one-day matches and red balls are used for Test and all other cricket.
MCC's head of cricket, John Stephenson, said the latest experiments were designed to see if the pink balls compensated for visibility difficulties.
"The challenge is to create a ball that retains its color," said Stephenson who confirmed MCC will introduce the ball in university and second X1 matches in 2008.
If successful the color change could be extended to English county cricket with the aim of a pink ball being used in one-day internationals.
Stephenson told The Times: "Paint tends to flake off white balls and we have asked Kookaburra to produce a batch of pink ones because these show up much better."
It is not the first time the game has experimented with different coloured balls with orange ones tried in the Refuge Assurance Cup in 1989.
Mike Gatting, the England and Wales Cricket Board's managing director of cricket partnerships, said: "We must always push the game forward and ensure we have the right equipment.
"We have tried white and orange balls and perhaps pink ones will last longer. This is a very interesting and very wise development and a color might have been found that is easier on the eye."
MCC's cricket committee met last week and reportedly "expressed its enthusiasm for pink balls" which could also show up better on television. E-mail to a friend 
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