Ball Trial, Disputed Findings

Sheffield Shield bowlers thrive with UK ball.

Andrew Ramsey.

CA web site.

Saturday, 20 May 2017.

PTG 2141-10858.

Analysis of the impact made by the English-manufactured ‘Dukes' ball on last austral summer's Sheffield Shield competition has shown it might provide a boost for Australia's Test team striving to break a 16-year Ashes drought in the UK.  Cricket Australia's (CA) Head of Cricket Operations, Sean Cary, said the statistical data collected from Shield matches played after Christmas that employed the Dukes ball had yielded results largely in keeping with expectations that drove the trial.

The most significant finding was the drop in the average number of runs scored per wicket taken; 28.9 against the ‘Dukes' ball as opposed to 34.6 in the three rounds of Shield cricket that featured the traditional, Australia-made, ‘Kookaburra' red ball. As well as the comparative reduction in individual centuries – 19 against the red ‘Kookaburra' (6.3 per round of matches) versus 18 in total in preliminary Shield rounds using the ‘Dukes' (3.6 per round) – suggesting that batters found it tougher against the English ball that is reputed to swing further and retain its hardness longer.

CA announced last October they had worked with UK-based manufacturer to produce a ball that mirrored the performance of the English version, but was designed to suit harsher Australian conditions, to help the nation's top-level domestic batters and bowlers better adapt to the idiosyncrasies of the ‘Dukes’ (PTG 1958-9858, 25 October 2016). 

The trial was driven by the struggles that successive Australia Test teams have endured against their Ashes rival on English soil, where the visitors have not won a campaign since 2001 (PTG 1845-9251, 5 June 2016).  “[The two-month Dukes trial] delivered what we thought it would deliver, we thought it would create challenging environments for the batsmen and give the bowlers a little bit more to work with”, said Cary.  "I think the long-form game, if anything, needs to favour the bowler a little bit because the batsmen get plenty of favouritism in the white-ball formats”.

"So it was about allowing local cricketers to adapt, and seeing who among them can adapt more quickly, as well as those who are prepared to accept that challenge.  And then they put their foot forward in terms of Ashes selection for 2019 if they can become consistent.  The unique properties of the ‘Dukes' ball – slightly smaller and darker than its red ‘Kookaburra' counterpart, and with a more prominent seam – were most evident on day one of the 15 Shield matches played prior to March's final between Victoria and South Australia which also featured the English ball.

In eight of those matches, the team batting first lost their initial six wickets for 150 runs or less, compared to 12 such day-one collapses in 34 matches using the red ‘Kookaburra' ball over the past two summers.  As a result, the average total of the team batting first on day one dropped from 335 against the red ‘Kookaburra' at the start of the summer (when pitches are traditionally at their most lively) to 270 from February onwards when the ‘Dukes' ball was used.  

"We've seen that the ‘Dukes' ball swings in any conditions, and at different times of the day as well”, Cary said of the ball's performance in Australia.  It was quite interesting in the Shield final [in Alice Springs last March] on the first day, it didn’t swing at all early on when it was quite warm and humid yet the days after that it did swing around when it was quite dry”.

Cary acknowledged that a key element of playing Test cricket in England – the presence of heavy, low cloud and high levels of air and surface moisture, such as prevailed at Trent Bridge in 2015 when Australia was bowled out for 60 in less than a session – cannot be replicated during an Australia summer.  But he noted it was the players who had experienced first-class cricket in the UK who adapted most readily to the introduction of the ‘Dukes' ball to Sheffield Shield, with four of the five leading runs scorers against the ‘Dukes’ all having previously plied their trade on the England county circuit.

The only setback according to Cary was the unexpected wear and tear problems with some of the ‘Dukes' balls in the early matches, but the manufacturer had quickly acknowledged the performance fault and pledged to rectify it.  "Coaching staff were really positive around the use of different balls and the way it taught the players to learn to adapt”, said Cary, a former Western Australian seamer who departs CA next week to take up a role as senior director with the United States Tennis Association  in Florida (PTG 2115-10734, 28 April 2017).

"Players don't necessarily like change at the best of times, but sometimes we've got to force the change on them so that they develop adaptability skills and learn to challenge themselves in different environments. Hopefully it holds them in good stead for opportunities down the track where they need to go back to their memory banks and recall how they learned to adapt to a different environment.  From a CA perspective, we're happy because we're getting appealing, result-driven cricket.  As far as Test cricket's concerned, that's really important. If we're going to maintain an attractive format and long-term product for fans then we need results, and we need bowlers to be in the game all the time”.

In late March, Victorian chief executive Shaun Graf labelled the use of ‘Dukes' in the 2016-17 Sheffield Shield competition “a failure” (PTG 2092-10595, 1 April 2017).  Graf, whose side won the series said that was despite the ball, not because of it.  He said he was: "not a wrap [for the ball because ] it goes horribly soft”.  "We've had to replace at least two every game. It's not up to it”.  ‘Dukes' ball "might work on a grassy pitch, for swing-based attack, like South Australia’s, but it did not work for Victoria's seamers".