The recent shift in preferences for the Dukes ball in place of the Sanspareils Greenlands Test ball has become a matter of much debate within Indian cricket as well as in international circles.
The buzz over the new found liking for Dukes balls started after India's recent tour of England. The call to play all Test cricket matches with the ball manufactured in England was not only made by Indian cricketers, but also by spin legend Shane Warne during the keenly fought India-England Test series. In fact, Warne went on to denounce even the Kookaburra ball used in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Pakistan.
The SG Test ball is used for all Test cricket played in India. Test matches in England and West Indies are played with Dukes balls.
The call for playing all Test cricket by India with Dukes has caught many by surprise. The question being asked is, having used the SG ball from the age group level upwards, winning and performing with both bat and ball, why have Indian players started rejecting them? Is it merely a matter of quality or the fact that the Dukes ball helps the current Indian pace bowling department deliver better away from home?
The Indian team management has given a “negative feedback” to the Board of Control for Cricket in India regarding the use of SG balls in the India-West Indies series last week. Meanwhile, SG has taken cognisance of the feedback and are confident that it is a minor issue, and that the quality can be improved without any major R&D and effort.
Indian skipper Virat Kohli, in Hyderabad, had made a pitch for the English ball, unhappy with the quality of the SG Test ball. Earlier, off spinner Ravichandran Ashwin had expressed his dissatisfaction with SG balls saying that it softened easily.
“I totally agree with Ashwin. To have a ball scuffed up in five overs is something that we haven't seen before. The quality of the ball used to be quite high before and I don't understand the reason why it has gone down. A Dukes is still good quality. Whatever limitations a Kookaburra might have, the quality is never compromised. The Dukes ball is most suited, according to me, for Test cricket. And if there is a situation, I would vouch for that to be used all over the world because of the consistency of the ball and how bowlers are in the game at any stage. Even the spinners, because the seam is so hard and upright,” said Kohli.
Shane Warne, in a tweet after the India-England series, had suggested to the ICC, “Message to all curators around the world‒make pitches that seam at the start of the test match then spin‒make conditions tough to bat‒this makes for exciting cricket & lastly to the ICC, please make all countries use duke balls for all red ball cricket (Ive said this for 3 yrs) [sic]”
Message to all curators around the world-make pitches that seam at the start of a test match then spin-make conditions tough to bat-this makes for exciting cricket & lastly to the ICC, please make all countries use duke balls for all red ball cricket (I’ve said this for 3 yrs)
— Shane Warne (@ShaneWarne) September 12, 2018
The BCCI, meanwhile, is taking up the matter with SG, which supplies balls for all domestic and international cricket at home to clubs and state associations. According to Syed Saba Karim, General Manager, Cricket Operations, BCCI, “I don't think it's a pitch for Dukes ball. A discussion has taken place with the team management. They have communicated that the SG Test ball for the two Tests matches against West Indies were not up to the mark. We are relaying the same to the manufacturer.”
The former India wicket-keeper also brushed aside any aspersions on the quality of leather used or that delivery was not a problem with SG―they were meeting the stipulated requirement on time to BCCI.
Speaking to THE WEEK, Paras Anand, Director, SG said, “Based over a period of time, we had done a very normal alteration so that it goes through the gauge and does not get stuck. We are in touch with the players and cricket board. What they are demanding doesn't require lots of R&D or going back to the drawing board. We are very confident these are minor things that they want and will be done.”
India A coach and former Indian skipper Rahul Dravid had, in a recent interview with THE WEEK, denounced calls to use Dukes balls in India citing issues such as cost of the ball and the impact that it will have all the way down the cricket structure at home. A Dukes ball costs almost 4.5 times more than an SG ball. There is also the issue of supply―being imported, the requirements for all Indian cricket are massive and it is unlikely that such a huge demand in India can be met by its manufacturers.
It is also being pointed out that till last season all things were hunky dory when it came to results at home. India had played 14 Test matches last season and had won 12 of them―all with the SG ball. It saw spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja and seam bowlers Mohammed Shami, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bunrah emerge as a potent bowling attack. The team had no complaints then.
When asked about the surge in demand for Dukes balls, Australian pace legend Glenn McGrath, as consultant with the MRF Pace Foundation, said, “It's a great ball to bowl with, batsmen don't like it much. I would be interested in knowing who is saying this. I think it might be the bowlers who are saying this. Dukes is a great ball to bowl with. When I played matches with Dukes, my average was six and half per Test match while with Kookaburra it would be four and a half. So there was significant difference I found. Playing with Dukes in Australia would have been like Christmas. But my problem when I retired was that wickets in Australia were all similar. So when we travelled, we faced problems, players haven't been tested in different conditions. I think it makes a better cricketer―bowler and batsman―to adapt and adjust, and I think in this day and age, cricketers don't adapt and adjust as much as they did in the past because they don't have to.”
