The role of the toss in day/night matches

India got absolutely thrashed the other night at Dambulla, so I don't think there can be any claim that the toss changed the result by that much, but it is clear that conditions in day/night games can vary more significantly than a match played during normal daylight hours.

Sangakkara's comments were very revealing:

"The concept of day-night ODIs needs to be looked at. It's not good to have the toss decide so many games, or whether you bat earlier or later. Ideally, personally speaking I would like to see only day matches or only night matches. But sponsors and broadcasters obviously feel day-night matches are the way to go, and we play according to the conditions and norms we are given. It's a concern since it's not a level-playing field at most times."

Given that it seems Test cricket will experiment with day/night matches, it's something that's going to be increasingly important moving forwards, so definitely something the ICC need to have done statistical analysis on. I personally hate matches being decided by a quirk of fate, even though there are some observers - Cricket Burbler Aussie Dave included - who like the way that luck can impact a match. Given the sponsors and broadcasters want day/night cricket according to Sangakkara, what about returning to the "run auction" at the toss that John Wright has burbled about before?!?