09 July,2009 08:43 AM IST | | Sudheendra Tripathi
That the Board of Control for Cricket in India's technical committee which met at the Cricket Centre in Mumbai yesterday, expressed concern at the depreciating standards of the Sanspareils Greenlands (SG) balls used in all domestic fixtures, was well appreciated by the cricketing fraternity. "They (BCCI) had to do it. The quality of the SG balls was questionable," former India speedster Manoj Prabhakar told MiD DAY.
"SG balls are handmade so it becomes extremely difficult to maintain uniformity and control quality of production," Prabhakar added.
According to the speedster, the balls that were used were different in all matches. And even if the ball was changed during the course of the match, their quality diferred.
"In such a situation, the bowler never really can draw up a gameplan. He has to change his strategy according to the behaviour of the ball. In order to prepare a ball for it to reverse, a bowler has to put in a lot of effort.
But these balls sometimes lose their shape. Theu00a0 seam is damaged and all the effort a medium pacer puts in goes down the drain," Prabhakar said.
Delhi medium pacer Pradeep Sangwan agreed that there is a drastic dip in the quality of SG balls and gets frustrating when the ball is changed as many as four times in the match. "Bowling on Indian wickets is not an easy task. And if the strike weapon of a bowler is faulty, there is nothing much he can do," he said.
"It takes a lot of time to prepare the ball for it to reverse but if the ball is changed even before it is due, then the whole grind of working on the ball is wasted," the left-armer added.
