It has taken only five nights but England's contentious curfew has already been broken. Two of England's XI failed to make it back to the team hotel by the midnight deadline on Saturday. But it's all above board. Due to the late finish in play on the first night, the pair were still in the Adelaide Oval dressing rooms doing recovery with the team physio when the clock struck 12. Several of England's support staff, who are also subjected to the same rules, made it back in the dying minutes after encountering traffic delays. Although the team's hotel is only a short walk across the bridge from the ground, the visitors must take cars back as a security measure. So what should have been a five-minute trip ended up taking 20 minutes. The ban also prevented Craig Overton from heading out with his parents to celebrate his Test debut. Instead, they had to meet him at the team hotel. In good news for the visitors, there is a suspicion the curfew will be lifted if England wins this match, which would allow them to roam free in Perth where all the drama started.
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India tipped for pink ball debut
The day-night Test concept is three years in, and crowds in Adelaide and television ratings reflect its success. Now to convince the game's superpower to get on board. India are due in Australia for four Tests starting next December before Sri Lanka arrive for a further two in January - the first time since 2012 that the New Year's Test in Sydney won't be the last of the home summer. The Board of Control for Cricket in India has held some talks in the past about its national team playing day-night Tests but they have never got over the line. However, Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland said on Sunday he does not expect too much of a problem. "We're in the throes of working out at all the different permutations and combinations," Sutherland told ABC Grandstand. "We've got four Test matches against India to kick off the summer, then later on two Test matches against Sri Lanka in January. "It is unusual ... next season will be different. We have to work out what the right balance is and the Test summer won't kick off until December." The position of the Sri Lanka series in January 2019 will also mean that the Big Bash will run head to head with Test matches for more of the summer.
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Close call
Tim Paine is not the only one to come back from the brink for the Ashes, so too has British broadcaster Alison Mitchell. The highly respected commentator, who is part of BT Sport's Ashes coverage and has also made appearances on the ABC's Offsiders program, held serious concerns for her career a year ago after undergoing surgery for a collapsed lung. "There was a time I was seriously worried I wouldn't be able to commentate again," Mitchell told the UK's Daily Mail newspaper. "I couldn't speak. The operation was one thing but for six weeks I couldn't lie flat in bed and I couldn't talk properly. The idea of being able to put oomph and energy into my voice was impossible. It took me a long time to walk at full speed and I thought, 'I need to talk here'. I'd never known pain like it but it's all good now."
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Boycott toasted
Last month Nathan Lyon set off a fire alarm at Allan Border Field in Brisbane when trying to prepare a couple of pieces of toast during a Sheffield Shield game between NSW and Queensland. Now, another Test luminary has also run into drama in the breakfast room on tour. Geoffrey Boycott, in Australia commentating on the Ashes, recounted his eventful morning in Adelaide on the BBC's Test Match Special on Sunday. "I wanted a hot croissant," Boycott said. "I disappeared when I saw the flames."
