The Westpac Stadium in Wellington, which will host its maiden first-class game in the upcoming season, is one of the venues for the day-night first-class matches, along with Eden Park in Auckland and Seddon Park in Hamilton. Wellington will host Otago, Auckland's home game will be against Canterbury while the Hamilton game will be between Northern Districts and Central Districts.
The New Zealand national team, which played the inaugural day-night Test against Australia in Adelaide in November 2015, is likely to play its maiden day-night home Test against England at Eden Park in 2018. The day-night domestic encounters scheduled for March 2017 will be act as trial runs for the pink-ball Test in 2018, with the players expected to provide their feedback based on which the board will weigh the pros and cons before taking a decision on hosting a floodlit Test, according to stuff.co.nz.
After their day-night Test last year, New Zealand were set to play their second day-night five-day game in 2016 during their tour of India. However, the plans did not materialise as BCCI was awaiting the players' feedback after the Duleep Trophy, which would conclude only a week before the start of the New Zealand series.
While it would be the first time that pink ball would be used in New Zealand's domestic cricket, Seddon Park has seen some pink-ball action as New Zealand's open-wicket training session in October 2015 ahead of the maiden day-night Test, and a minor association match in March 2016 were held at this venue.
The Plunket Shield matches will be held in two parts. The first five rounds of first-class matches will be played from October 22 to November 25, 2016 while the domestic T20 tournament will be held from early December to mid January, followed by the Ford Trophy - the List A competition - which will run from January 15 to February 18, 2016. The remaining five rounds of Plunket Shield, which includes the pink-ball games, will commence from February 25 to April 1.
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