A ball that’s both a boon and a bane for bowlers

Ajit Menon

The white Kookaburra ball, the ball used in ODI and T20 cricket, has made life, quite surprisingly, both easy and difficult for the bowlers.

Being harder than the traditional red ball — the red ones have a more leathery texture while the white has a glassy finish — the white Kookaburra ball helps quick bowlers as it swings and deviates more off the pitch. It will, however, be of far less assistance to spinners, as its smoother coating makes it difficult for the spinners to get a good grip.
As the white balls show blemishes more than the red ones, they are manufactured with a harder coating. While the harder ball helps the pacer with conventional seam and swing, it has taken one lethal weapon the bowler had out of the equation — the reverse swing. And without reverse swing, the pacers are often left powerless in the death overs to respond to the increasingly aggressive batsmen armed with bigger bats and smaller boundaries. The white ball isn’t conducive for reverse swing because of its hard coating; it doesn’t scuff up enough to swing in reverse direction. And with the use of two new balls per innings — the rule was introduced because the white balls are more prone to marks and stains and the batsmen find it difficult to sight the ball — the balls can be just 25-over old at the most, hence more unlikely to reverse swing.
Former India pacer Manoj Prabhakar says the earlier version of the white Kookaburra ball had a much more pronounced seam, and hence used to swing a lot more.
Of late, though, the bowlers are getting some reverse swing. The reason for that is, the leather with which the balls are being made now is less durable and of a lesser quality. So the ball tends to scuff up a fair bit even with two balls being in operation, and that aids reverse swing.
The Kookaburra, which initially used the leather from the local Melbourne based Pete’s tannery that shut down seven years back, is now importing leather from Europe & South America, which isn’t as good and durable.

Not conducive for Indian conditions
Currently, the BCCI-approved ball manufacturers in India don’t have the technology to produce an internationally acceptable white ball and the BCCI continues to import white Kookaburra at a high price, which is out of reach for most people.
And until a cricketer plays List A One-day domestic matches or the IPL, he has little exposure to the ball.
Another problem with the ball is that it isn’t water proof. Whenever there’s dew or rain, it tends to soak in a lot of moisture, it becomes like a soap cake. The ball doesn’t even swing much in the subcontinent, and the bounce isn’t great either. It’s more conducive to the bouncier tracks of South Africa and Australia.
For the subcontinent, the ideal ball would need a more pronounced hand-stitched seam and a more bouncy core which helps the bowlers get more swing and more bounce from the docile pitches.

Kookaburra coming to India
Meanwhile, Kookaburra is setting up its manufacturing facility in Meerut and should go into production mode in a few months. The BCCI, however, should encourage local manufacturers and use the expertise of former cricketers to set up a state-of-the-art ball-making plant which can produce better quality cricket ball at one-tenth the price they pay for Kookaburra.
The writer is a manufacturer of bespoke cricket bats, cricket balls and protective equipment. He sells his bats under the label Matrrixx.