Players will adapt to pink ball: CA

A new, harder pink ball was trialled by Cricket Australia today as another step was taken towards an historic first day-night Test match in the 2015-16 summer.

CA's National Performance Squad players were given the new ball to trial at a net session in Brisbane under the watchful eye of Kookaburra's Head of Cricket Ball Production Ross Thompson and Australian Cricketers' Association Manager of Cricket Operations Graham Manou.

Thompson said the new version of the pink ball featured a harder inner core and had more durable stitching that was now green, like on white balls used in limited-overs cricket, instead of white.

CA’s Senior Manager Cricket Operations Sean Cary admitted the condition of the ball was a work in progress, but said players needed to be prepared to accept that the pink Kookaburra wouldn't be able to exactly replicate a red one.

“We need to work with the players to manage their expectations," said Cary.

"They adapt to playing in different conditions from going to the Gabba to Adelaide Oval, going from Australia to India, from India to the UK. They adapt to playing with a Kookaburra ball compared to a Duke ball.

"(The players) probably underestimate how well they do adapt to change and I can’t see why going from a red ball to a pink ball is going to be that big of a difference for them."

Statistics from the Bupa Sheffield Shield trial in March, albeit a small sample size, showed little difference in many key match indicators, feedback provided by the players suggested the balls deteriorated too quickly, making it harder for bowlers to take wickets and batsmen to make runs when the ball became soft around the 20-30 overs mark.

It was also suggested that the white seam had been hard to pick up, making life more difficult for the batsmen and leading to the change to green.

"That round (of Shield cricket) was really the start of the process, in terms of seeing where the pink ball is currently at and what we need to do to work with Kookaburra to get it to a state that the administrators, players and viewers are happy with," Cary told cricket.com.au today.

"Our aim is to get a ball for round two of the 2014-15 Shield competition to be as close to the ball that we’re going to have used in the following year in a Test match.

"If we need to continually work on the ball in the following year then Kookaburra are open to working with us to make sure we get the ball right."

Some players who participated in the Shield trial last summer were on hand to test out the new pink balls today, and while it was generally considered a positive development, there was also a feeling that more testing needed to be done to further replicate match conditions.

“We found (in the trial) that the swing wasn’t quite as consistent as there is with a red ball,” said Western Australia quick Jason Behrendorff.

“From what we saw today it looks like they’ve definitely put a bit of work into it.

“The ball held its shine reasonably well on one side, but it still scuffs and gets soft a little bit on the other side at times.

"Especially if the batter hits it into the wicket or if it’s quite abrasive then it might go pear-shaped a little bit quickly.

“They’ve made some good gains and hopefully we can continue to see that in the future.”

New South Wales Blues batsman Ryan Carters excelled in the Shield trial, scoring 65 and 84 against the West End Redbacks at the Adelaide Oval, one of the venues touted for a possible inaugural day-night Test match.

“I had a good hit-out in the nets today against the ball,” said Carters, who admitted he had no issues with the visibility of the ball during the match in Adelaide.

“It was a brand new ball so it’s a little bit hard to tell what it would have been like once it got a bit older, but it certainly felt good on the bat as a new ball.”

While some scepticism remains, promising young leg-spinner James Muirhead was quick to dismiss any notion that the ball wouldn’t be ready for Test cricket by late next year.

“What I’ve found is that it’s very similar to the red ball and it holds its shape pretty well,” said Muirhead.

“As a spin bowler it feels quite nice in the hands and I can’t really pick any negatives out of the pink ball.

“It’s a very balanced ball. The white ball can get a bit wobbly at some stages, and the red ball gets a bit out of shape as it gets older, but the pink ball holds its shape really well.”

Feedback will be taken from all the players involved in the training session and more testing will be conducted in various conditions, but Cary remains confident that a day-night Test is on track for late next year.

“I think we’ve got plenty of time between now and then to bring the players along for the ride," he said.