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Director of SG says feedback will be taken from players while making new balls

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Following India’s humiliating defeat at the hands of England in the opening Test in Chepauk, there has been huge scrutiny on the balls which were used for the match. Barring the below-par performance by the home team and expressing his disappointment at the same, India skipper Virat Kohli clearly expressed his displeasure at the Sanspareils Greenlands (SG) balls used for the opening Test.

Paras Anand, the Director of Cricket Equipment manufacturer SG, spoke to Times of India and said that they will definitely take suggestions from the players and will try to improve the quality of the ball. Several footages on TV confirmed the fact that the leather base was coming off with the stitches getting torn out. A Test match ball is always expected to last 80 overs without any prominent deterioration but it was not the case in Chennai. The hardness of the pitch might have also had a role in the deterioration of the ball. 

“High quality of the ball (SG-Check) was additionally not what we had been more than happy to see as that was additionally the case up to now. Simply the ball utterly being destroyed in 60 overs isn’t one thing that you simply expertise as a Check aspect and any aspect may very well be ready for,” Kohli was quoted as saying following India’s shambolic loss. 

On Monday after completing a 9-wicket haul, Ravichandran Ashwin also had his say on the nature of the ball. He stated that he hasn't seen an SG ball in this condition in several years. He did concede the fact that in addition to the quality of the ball, the pitch might have done its bit. 

“I’ve by no means seen an SG ball tear (get torn) by the seam like that. So it might nicely be a mixture of how laborious the pitch was on the primary two days, even within the second innings after the 35th-40th over, the seam was getting kind of peeled off

“It was weird, I imply, I have not seen an SG ball like that in (the) final so a few years, however, yeah, perhaps it may very well be as a result of pitch and the hardness of it by the centre which is making the ball get scuffed up.” Ashwin additional stated.

Meanwhile, Paras Anand reacted to Ashwin’s comments that he has never seen an SG ball like that, Anand said, "He (Ashwin) said 'I had never seen the ball tear like this t may very well be due to the floor’, that may be a large assertion in itself. Moderately than passing the judgement, we might be open to suggestions and based mostly on the suggestions, we really get all the way down to see how abrasive the floor was, we will work on enhancing the standard of the balls.”

“I’ve solely seen the observe on TV, I have not been on the observe to see how (Sharma) talked about it after getting his 300th wicket. He stated the primary innings, which was like two and a half days, felt like ‘I’m bowling on a highway’, so it was that onerous.” Anand told Times of India.

Recent studies suggest that SG had manufactured a recent set of balls for the ongoing India-England series with an extra pronounced seam but Anand clarified the fact the balls used for the first Test was from the new collection. 

“It isn’t a brand new ball, it’s a ball-based mostly on the suggestions we had improved upon over the past two and a half years. The ball did not lose its form and therefore (was) not modified and the second ball that India used when Ishant bought his two wickets (off consecutive deliveries), that ball was used for 104 overs. The primary ball was modified within the 81st over, the second ball was used for 104 overs, which exhibits that no matter work now we have executed within the final two and a half years is giving us an end result that even on such a tough and sluggish wicket and one which was abrasive on the fourth and fifth day, the ball retained its form and was travelling (on the outfield), which was fairly obvious,” he added. 

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