The BCCI’s technical committee is considering phasing out the SG Test ball, currently in use in domestic and international cricket in India, in favour of either the Australian Kookaburra or the English Duke ball. The reason, a committee member said, was that the SG ball’s declining quality was leading to numerous delays during matches.

“We felt the quality of SG Test balls is not up to specified standards. Therefore, we decided to talk to the skippers of state teams and members of the Indian team on switching to either Duke or Kookaburra in both domestic and international games,” former Test batsman Chetan Chauhan, a member of the technical committee, told The Indian Express on Tuesday. “The players’ inputs are important. A report will be tabled in a couple of months.”

Though the committee is almost unanimous on the switch, some factors have to be taken into account before a final decision is taken.

The SG ball is considered helpful for spinners because its prominent seam allows grip off the wicket, and the recent discovery that it allows early reverse swing had played a key role in the home side’s victories over Australia and England last year.

Due to this, the committee will specifically speak to Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh on the subject.

‘Easy to blame the ball’

But SG owner Paras Anand said the issue of the balls being frequently changed was being blown out of proportion. “We showed the balls returned to us by the board to a former Test cricketer, and he found nothing wrong with them. If the fielding side doesn’t get wickets, it blames the ball and tries to change it for better swing or grip. We are trying to supply directly to the associations to negate chances of counterfeit balls,” he said.

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