Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Inventor of pink ball believes there will be chance for Australian batters to cash in
The man who invented the pink ball believes there will be a chance for batters — including Australia’s under-siege top order — to cash in during next week’s Adelaide Test.
That’s if they do the hard yards and get through its dangerous early overs.
Day-night matches have become as big an advantage for Australia on home shores as any of its vaunted fortresses. Thanks largely to its fearsome fast-bowling attack and mastering the nuances of matches played under lights, Australia has won 11 of its 12 pink-ball contests.
After a chastening loss to West Indies in Brisbane last summer — their only blip in day-nighters — Pat Cummins’ side are out to restore their crown as the pink-ball kings.
The last time Australia met India in Adelaide, they rolled the tourists for 36.
John Stephenson was the brains behind the pink ball and a fierce early advocate for day-night matches. He pioneered county matches under lights and help fine-tune the concept before its Test debut in 2015. Now he is the man in charge of WA Cricket, taking over as chief executive after arriving in Australia earlier this month.
The glistening pink Kookaburras are renowned for swinging hard early, but losing their life quickly.
Stephenson, one of the world’s leading cricket administrators, told The West Australian, a good batting wicket at Adelaide Oval could help quell the influence of the new ball, even in the hands of India destroyer Jasprit Bumrah.
The looming spectre of Bumrah has hung over Australia since he made a mess of its desperately out-of-form top order in an hour of carnage on the first day of the series.
“Bumrah will definitely be a challenge, but lets face it the Adelaide pitch is a really good pitch, they will prepare it pretty well and I think it will create a really amazing spectacle, a good contest,” Stephenson said.
“There is no doubt facing Jasprit Bumrah with a pink ball on a fresh pitch is a challenge, but Test cricket is a challenge.
“If you get through it, you have a good chance to cash in as it gets flat. I’m really looking forward to seeing it all unfold.
“It is very difficult to make a pink ball degrade the same way as the red ball does, it just has different sort of properties and that was the challenge, because you shine a pink ball and it doesn’t really come off on your whites like a red ball, there are different ways to infuse the leather.
“It was all part of the long experiment and the research we did into it to make sure that we landed on something that would retain the integrity of the game and the balance between bat and ball.”
When teams plan to bat in pink-ball matches is largely shaped by when they want the opposition at the crease, which is almost always during a tricky twilight period.
Stephenson said the sunset period, rather than actual darkness, was always the biggest hurdle in the crusade for day-night cricket.
Camera IconWA Cricket chief executive John Stephenson. Credit: Kelsey Reid/The West Australian
And it is the biggest hurdle for batters hoping to survive too.
“We built up a body of evidence to show that it was viable, because there was some sceptics, especially during that twilight period, trying to swap over lunch and tea, trying all these things to try and minimise the twilight impact,” Stephenson said.
“But then we quickly realised that, actually, it brings another nice nuance to the game.
“As with all these things cricketers are pretty adaptable and the game is pretty adaptable.”
Stephenson, who was then the head of cricket at the Marylebone Cricket Club, the keeper of the game’s laws, had been working with the International Cricket Council on ways to keep the oldest and longest form of the game alive.
In 2009 he spearheaded the push for pink balls to be used, working with Kookaburra to rule out an orange ball because it left a vapor trail of light on television sets, and then refining the seam and other elements of the new product.
English superstar Ben Stokes made his first-class debut for Durham in an annual curtain-raiser between the MCC and the county champions in Abu Dhabi, which became an expo for early day-night cricket.
Indian legends Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid were also advocates after plundering centuries in pink-ball matches and the concept had an unlikely ally in Chris Rogers. The former Australian opener pushed for pink balls to be used, despite being colour blind. The establishment of day-night cricket was part of the reason his Test career came to an end in 2015 — months before the first Test was played.
Camera IconTop officials from the world cricket committee Mike Brearley (R) and John Stephenson look at the pink ball. Credit: AAMIR QURESHI/AFP
“We were discussing the future of Test cricket and how to make it more accessible to different audiences,” Stephenson said.
“We started working with Kookaburra on different types of balls with a white seam and a black seam and a white background and a black background, different types of pitches and over the years, it took me a lot of time to develop the concept, advocate for it and get advocates for it.
“Gradually I presented to the ICC on it, tried to get them to buy into it and eventually, after quite a few meetings and presentations and proof concepts, they decided that it was viable for Test matches.
“With a pink ball, it is really adaptable. You can wear whites, you can retain that bit of tradition for a long-form game, so that is why we landed on it.
“Now to see it embedded in certain schedules is great. In some countries it doesn’t work, but in Australia it definitely does and it’s good for timezones, good for television and now it has become established.”
Australian players are expected to land in Adelaide across the weekend after resting in their home States during the week.
Cummins flagged after The West Test their preparation to play with the pink ball includes sessions both during the day and under the lights.
“We will have a day-time session, but we will also have a night-time training session,” he said.
“No doubt the batters will want at least one hit in daylight and night-time and same with fielding, we will catch some balls under lights one of those days and probably do a fielding session during the day.
“That’s the main thing, it’s just a little bit different to pick up with the eye and then as a bowler it feels a little bit different, but one or two sessions we have played a lot with pink balls, so it is not as big an adjustment for us.”
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