Call me a purist but at present I believe lights should only be used during 'regular' hours of play in the case of bad light that would otherwise stop the game.
I just don't know how well you can see a red ball underlights.
Of course my opinion would probably change if somebody successfully experiments with night time first class cricket.
Ther were day/night Sheffield Shield matches played in the mid 90's. The batting could not have been to difficult, Dean Jones made 324* in one of these matches at the MCG.
They already use lights now if there is bad light. They mainly use it to make up for time lost due to rain, or to finish the required amount of overs for a day. They usual got through to 7pm.
Until recently the two countries had to agree on if the lights should be used, but the ICC brought in a rule that said if a ground has lights then they will be used.
Yes, lights should be used to extend play as long as conditions are fair for both sides. At the end of the day, the crowd have paid good money to attend the game & deserve to get a good day's play. With the thread on Colonial's problems, maybe we should be playing more games indoors, as Summer seems to be arriving later every year. Just a thought.
One of the problems with bad light is that Umpires have a look at the light meters & offer it to the batsmen when it reaches a certain level.
But the rules state (unless they've changed them) that it should only be offered if it poses the risk of injury to the players but still they offer it with a couple of spinners bowling & batsmen wearing a helmet with visor-where's the danger in that?
The umpires should I think only offer the light when it is ridiculously dark, it's funny but batsmen nearly always take the light & yet when England beat Pakistan last year the Test match finished in near pitch black conditions & yet the batsmen had no trouble making runs in fact it was the fielders who failed to pick up the ball.I reckon there's a lesson in there for batsmen who take the safe option all the time.