LONDON: Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) named their team on Tuesday for their ground-breaking season opener against county champions Durham in Dubai in March.

This will be the first time the match has been played away from MCC’s Lord’s headquarters in London and, in another break with tradition, the first-class fixture will be played under flodlights using pink cricket balls. Gloucestershire captain Alex Gidman leads an MCC side featuring veteran former England batsman Mark Ramprakash, ex-England wicketkeeper James Foster and promising trio of James Taylor, Dawid Malan and paceman Steven Finn.

The four-day match between MCC and Durham will be played at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium from March 29 and could help pave

the way for day-night

Test cricket. Long talked about as a way to revive interest in Test matches, day-nighters — a feature of the one day international programme for over 30 years — have yet to become part of test because of concerns that different coloured cricket balls would not be as durable as the traditional red ball that is difficult to see under floodlights.