“White ball still ideal option?”
Cricket Australia have brushed aside concerns regarding the pink ball, that were made during the Prime Minister’s XI match between Australians XI and the New Zealanders. The Sheffield Shield fixture bwteen South Australia and New South Wales, which will feature the pink ball, not only promises to be a proving ground for the players involved but for all organisations associated, including channel 9 and various technological cricket establishments.
Head of Animation Research “Ian Taylor” has recently conceived that the group responsible for ball tracking hasnt yet succeeded much with a pink ball.
“We can track it some of the time”
Groups from Channel Nine, Cricket Australia, ABC and a few other organisations will take part in the Adelaide game to notice how the ball and playing conditions stand shoulder to shoulder. The pink ball became subject to a lot of criticism during the PM XI’s game, with several players and pundits leading the critics. There was alot of discussion from both sets of players. Former Australian all-rounder David Hussey exclaimed that the ball didnt seem like a ball that would last 80 overs.
“The ball simply doesn’t stand up for the 80 overs, and during the PM’s XI game we had to change the ball twice, so certainly some tinkering needs to happen sooner rather than later. oing to be here to stay but I really think they have to do something about the ball and very quickly. Talking to some of the Kiwis after Friday night’s match, they were fielding in the evening and they could barely pick up the ball. So it’s probably more of a player safety issue rather than playing at night. As Victoria batting coach I’m trying to tell all the batters just to play the ball as late as they possibly can, because it is a different style of ball, and you just see a sort of blur to start off with. It takes a few balls to get used to it. The concept sits quite comfortably with all the players, but the pink ball, there could be a better option about.”
Visibility issues were a major concern throughout the game, after various batsmen declared it was touch to read the swing or seam of the ball. Sean Cary, head of cricket operations for Cricket Australia has however denied any concerns on worries by the organising parties:
“We’re not reading too much into the condition of the ball during the Prime Minister’s XI match in Canberra. We know the Manuka wicket is very abrasive and has a similar impact on a white ball in limited-overs cricket. We’ve worked very closely with the Australian Cricketers’ Association and Kookaburra during its development to get it ready and fit for purpose. That included making significant improvements in the last 18 months around greater seam visibility, colour, shape and hardness.We’re as confident as we can be that the ball is ready to go and I think from the experiences in the last round of Shield cricket that we had using the pink ball, we can be really positive as we approach the Test”.
Australian legend Steve Waugh has reiterated the importance of the Test Game moving into the night. Waugh believes that Test cricket is slowly fading away from the world of cricket, and that, England and Australia are the only two countries where people still watch Test cricket.
“Day/night will bring people back to the game. We’ve got to get over the fact it might not be a perfect ball. Once we play one day/night Test people will be saying ‘what were we worrying about”
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