YORKSHIRE and the MCC are set to play the Champion County four-day fixture with the red ball in daylight in Abu Dhabi in March after a successful request from the champions.

The White Rose county were not impressed with the pink ball which they used in the three-day win at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium earlier this year, and believe traditional first-class conditions will provide better preparation for the 2016 season.

The pink ball and floodlights have been used for the last six years of the curtain-raiser for the English domestic season, but now that experiment has been halted.

Next month, Australia and New Zealand will play the first-ever Test match with the pink ball under floodlights at the Adelaide Oval, starting on November 27.

It will be the third and final Test of a series between the trans-Tasman rivals which begins in Brisbane next week.

“We have requested that we play with a red ball next year,” said Yorkshire’s director of professional cricket Martyn Moxon. “I think, pretty much, the experiment’s finished if you like, so we’re playing a day game with the red ball.”

The pink ball, currently being used in the ongoing round of Sheffield Shield fixtures down under, has come under fire of late from a number of leading names in the Australian game - none more so than Test batsman Adam Voges.

The ex-Nottinghamshire and Middlesex man played in a warm-up 50-over match for the Prime Minister’s XI against the Kiwis in Canberra last week and was highly critical of how the ball deteriorated so quickly.

"There wasn't much pink left on it by the end of the game,” he said. "It stopped swinging, there was no reverse-swing, but the older it gets, I can't see it being any easier to see.

"The first ten overs were a real challenge, but after that the ball stopped swinging. There was no reverse-swing or anything like that because both sides get chewed up equally.”

Like Voges, Moxon is not a fan: “Not at all,” he said. “I just don’t see the value in it. We couldn’t see the ball rolling across the outfield when we played with it under the lights.

“There’s that twilight period where the lads said it was really difficult to pick up, and games change in that twilight period. That’s been proven.

“The one game we had with it, and other reports that you’ve heard, there doesn’t seem to be a lot going for it.

“It doesn’t keep its colour. It’s a bit like the white ball. Once it gets scuffed, you can’t shine them back like you can with the red ball. If you put a bit of moisture on a scuff with the red ball and shine it, it comes back shiny red.

“For some reason, the white and pink don’t do that. It’s a scuff and then you’ve lost it. I just don’t see it at all going forward, I’m afraid.”

Yorkshire will face the MCC between March 20 and 23.