This has been a pretty dark period in cricket. There’s no need to go into it – so much has already been said – but there is one dimension to the saga that is yet to be analysed.
I’m talking about the ball, specifically the Kookaburra ball used for Test match cricket in many countries.
There was some talk in recent times about how the Sheffield Shield went to using Duke balls for the second half of the season and how the ball did move around a lot more than the Kookaburra that is normally used.
One thing I’ve noticed consistently when images are showed of the balls used in Test match cricket is that they seem to have significantly smaller seams than the Kookaburra balls used for club cricket that I’ve always played with.
Those balls that we always used would swing more often than not. Sometimes you’d get a ball that just wouldn’t, but generally if you bowled it right, you could get it to swing. Over time the ball would deteriorate and the natural swing would slowly go away, you’d have a period where the ball wouldn’t swing, and then, if you’d looked after the ball right, you might start to get it to reverse swing late in the day.
(AAP Image/Joe Castro)
If you played on a particularly abrasive pitch, the natural swing would go sooner and the reverse would arrive sooner. If you played in conditions that looked after the ball well, it wouldn’t deteriorate enough to get reverse swing, but it would generally mean you’d keep getting natural swing throughout the day.
Compare that to the standard in Test cricket using modern Kookaburra balls. If you are lucky, you might get five to six overs of natural swing, then suddenly the game is all about trying to get the ball to reverse because until you get it to reverse you aren’t going to get it to do anything.
There has been much talk about the ‘roads’ that we’ve seen in Australia in recent times, but could the issue just as much be the ball? If Kookaburra could just make a slightly more pronounced seam on the ball, then it would swing more and have more chance of moving off the seam also, even on the pitches we’ve seen in Australia.
Give the players a ball that will actually move off the straight without having to try everything under the sun to it to get it to do so and maybe there wouldn’t be as great a temptation to push the limits of the laws.
I’m not trying to justify the actions or Dave Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft – or of Faf du Plessis, Vernon Philander or anyone else who’s been caught ball tampering in recent times – but we all like a more even contest between bat and ball, so give the bowlers something to work with that doesn’t require pushing the limits of what’s legal to get it and maybe we can have some better bat vs ball contests in Test cricket.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Never saw the point of picking the seam. Don't know that it would ever get it to really stand up much more. But certainly players would be very, very liberal with the application of sunscreen, happy to have plenty of not-rubbed-in sunscreen on their skin to use in shining the ball. The first I ever got reverse swing was at training one time when all the decent balls were taken, so I grabbed an old one and put masses of spit into one side and got it shined up as much as possible, had it reversing everywhere. After that I regularly went for old balls at training. But only very occasionally would match balls get hacked up enough to be able to get them reversing. (It also didn't help that you almost always had some idiot who would shine both sides!!!)
twodogs
Guest
Question dodger! You should be Warners advisor.?
cos1
Guest
I believe it was Thommo that said that the modern Kookaburra has a softer and less pronounced seam, and that this was the intentional choice of the manufacturers. I agree totally with what the author has said - the pendulum has swung far too far in favour of the batsmen and the softening of balls is just making it too difficult to rely of effort and natural variation. You would almost have to be insane to be a fast bowler nowadays.
DavSA
Guest
Thanks to the influence of T20 the cricketing administrators seem to think that preparing batting roads bring in the numbers. In our local domestic season the Northern Titans won the comp by winning only 2 games . Yes you heard that right .....2 games. 5 or 6 ....and I am quoting from memory were draws. That by the way was the most wins out of any side. The stadiums were almost always empty with university cricket ...the next level being hugely supported. OK Varsity cricket is only ODI , I know but you get my drift . The SA public want to watch cricket but not the farce that the extended game has become. This is not a problem exclusive to SA cricket and in fact in countries like Australia they have even extended it to test level. No wonder bowlers are looking for an advantage . Any will do. Ball technology can always be improved . When I played the game at club level we picked the seam . ( losing side paid for beers ) , we had no clue about reverse swing . Fair pitches offering equal opportunity to bowlers and batters is the only answer.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Balls can start reversing quite early in the right conditions. If the pitch is really abrasive, it can start to hack up the ball quite quickly and sometimes you see the ball reversing after less than 20 overs, and that's not ball tampering, that's just playing on a really abrasive surface. But where you play in conditions that tend to look after the ball more, we should be seeing conventional swing for a lot longer.
twodogs
Guest
Well done chris. Batsmen have the luxury of larger more responsive bats, should not the bowlers be afforded some luxury? Apart from green tops on the odd occasion and minimal day night fixtures, they have little in the way of assistance in bowling on roads. Apart from doctoring the ball of course! So therefore, every time a ball had gone irish in the 50th over for example, can we now suspect something has happened -artificially?
Rellum
Roar Guru
I generally agree with you but I think it also comes down to the skills of the bowlers. Rabada and Philander both have got the Kookaburra to swing where the Aussies haven't. I still don't think it swings or seams as much as it used too. Of course the pitches play a big part in how much a ball seams and the recent Aussie pitches haven't been great for seam bowling on a whole. Bowlers have complained that the Kookaburra goes softer quickly now, negating the seam movement. The Dukes were used in the second half of the season of the Shield and the Final and the ball did swing more. Some of the Tassie bowlers have got the Kookaburra ball to swing this year as well, Nesser did get a bit as well. The Kookaburra rounds also include pink ball games where the ball does more as well.