| Sports |
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| Kookaburra does not Grays the
occasion – Players up in arms |
| By S.R. Pathiravithana |
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In the midst of the knotty situation in local cricket, another difference of view has erupted in cricket – this time it being between the players in the Premier League
tournament and the SLC administration over the balls provided for the ongoing division one club cricket tournament.
According to the players during the past they were provided with the Kookaburra balls with which the Sri Lankan Test cricket is played. This time the authorities have provided them with a Pakistan made Grays ball which had a slightly protruded seam.
Members of several clubs complained to The Sunday Times that a ball with a protruded seam would give any new ball user an undue advantage over the batsmen as the ball tends to swing much more than the Kookaburra ball that they generally use and the result has been that almost all sides lose a lot of wickets during the initial ten overs.
An irate member of one club lamented “This time the Premier League tournament is going to be used as the yardstick to pick the final lineup for the Provincial Tournament which is going to be branded as our main tournament. However when bowlers with less skills have taken a lot of wickets not owing to their own skills, but the bad quality of the ball, there may be lopsided selections. That might be a very dangerous situation.”
A member of another club brought in another argument. He said “It is not only the protruding seam. The ball is also unusually hard and there have been a lot of fielding injuries just while stopping the ball and going for catches. Besides that during the last two seasons we played the Premier League limited overs tournament with coloured clothing and a white ball, why a change now. Are they trying to dilute the quality of the premier league tournament?”
Replaying to these allegations Chandima Mapatuna – SLC’s manager tournaments said “In the first instance we have not received any complaints from any club on this issue. Initially Grays ball was given to the National team for their practices and there were no complaints and at the same time even the SLC cricket committee which comprises a lot of eminent cricketers has approved the usage of this ball.
Mapatuna also added that for the Provincial Tournament the Grays Ball with the Australian hide would be used.
Cricket Committee Member Sidath Wettimuny came down hard on the complainants. He pointed out that in Pakistan even the Test matches are played with the Grays ball so if one leading Test playing country can use this for their highest grade of cricket why cannot we use it for our club cricket tournament? Then speaking on the moving ball Wettimuny said “I know that the moving ball is a huge problem to most of our top order batsmen and it is high time they played a lot of cricket with the moving ball and get used to it.”
Wettimuny also added “This move was made as a cost cutting exercise. As I see there is very little difference between a Kookaburra ball and a Grays Cavalier ball, however the price difference is around Rs. 2500/- per ball. I do not see why there is such a huge uproar about this”. |
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