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Verdict is in on pink ball … and it’s not pretty

Adam Voges has delivered his verdict on the pink ball and it is not pretty.

After a bit of tap, the pink ball is, in fact, green, he said after the Prime Minister’s XI lost by 102 runs against New Zealand.

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“It looked as though the lacquer had come off basically and it was turning green,” incumbent Test batsman Voges said after making a half-century in the PM’s XI’s failed run chase.

“There were bits of pink left, but it was more green than pink by the end.”

Adam Voges says ball began to turn green.

Voges is a smart bloke who has been around for a long time.

He will know these comments are provocative and far from the Cricket Australia line, but he clearly does not mind.

“There wasn’t much pink left on it by the end of the game. The one that got hit onto the roof and did not come back was 28 overs old and it looked like it was 68 overs old to be fair.

“To be honest it didn’t hold up very well at all tonight.

“I know that it stopped swinging, there was no reverse swing or anything like that because both sides get chunked up equally, but yeah the older it gets I can’t see it being any easier to see.”

Pink balls will be used in a round of Sheffield Shield matches next week, with New Zealand getting a further acclimatisation opportunity in a tour game before the day/night Test in Adelaide to conclude the series.

Cricket Australia’s top brass – outgoing chairman Wally Edwards and his successor, David Peever – were looking at the balls after the game.

If Voges’s view is shared and voiced by enough of his Australian team-mates, it could be a long month for these administrators.

Hazlewood not tickled pink by day-night ball

Australia paceman Josh Hazlewood has also expressed concerns about the safety of the pink ball to be used in the day-night Test.

Hazlewood said the ball was hard to see for fielders square of the wicket late in the day and also felt it was performing more like the white ball of one-day cricket rather than the red ball used in Tests.

The time when the sun is setting, those fielders square of the wicket, when there’s someone like Brendon McCullum batting, it’s going to come pretty quickly whether you’re at backward point or square leg.

Josh Hazlewood

Hazlewood and his New South Wales team-mates had an evening practice session with the ball on Tuesday and the paceman was left with a number of doubts.

“It was a little bit tough to see for the square-on fielders, at point and square leg, it was a bit easier in front of the wicket,” he said.

“The time when the sun is setting, those fielders square of the wicket, when there’s someone like (New Zealand captain) Brendon McCullum batting, it’s going to come pretty quickly whether you’re at backward point or square leg.

“It’s going to be tough to see and hang on to. It might be a little bit dangerous but the more we use it … the more we will get used to it.

“We’re adapting on the batting and bowling fronts, it’s just the fielding.”

cricket with pink ball5291886-3x2-940x627

Some doubts … the pink ball will be used in the looming day-night Test.

Purists, including former Australia captain Ricky Ponting, have reservations about the day-night experiment, and Hazlewood’s team-mate and fellow paceman Mitchell Starc also complained earlier this year that the ball could be hard to see and swung differently to the red one.

“If (crowds) can’t see it, they’ll ask themselves what they’re doing there watching,” Hazlewood added.

“I see a lot of similarities with the white ball at the moment, the way it behaves at the start of the innings and after 40-50 overs.

“It’s going to be hard to buff up and get that nice red shine like you would a normal red leather cricket ball, but it’s improved the last couple of years. Whether it’s ready for Test matches we’ll find out.”

The Nine Network is adamant the inaugural day-night cricket Test will feature DRS as per normal, despite concerns being raised by the firm responsible for ball-tracking technology.

The third Test between Australia and New Zealand, which will be played under lights and with a pink ball at Adelaide Oval, is five weeks away.

Nine has already spent plenty of time and money to prepare for the prime-time event, conducting a range of tests in partnership with Cricket Australia (CA) over the past 18 months.

There is still much to do.

That includes working closely with Animation Research, the New Zealand company that has helped deliver the Decision Review System (DRS) in Australian Tests since its inception.

Ian Taylor, head of Animation Research, recently questioned whether his organisation had enough time to ensure its technology could reliably track an old pink ball.

We’ve got plenty of time to continue our testing and we’ll get there if it’s humanely possible to get there – and I believe it is.

Nine Network’s Steve Crawley

Nine’s head of sport Steve Crawley appreciated why Taylor was anxious but did not share the feeling.

“I can understand he’s concerned but we’re going to get there,” Crawley said.

“I understand the pressure Ian feels and his concern is genuine. We’ll work it out.

“We’ve got plenty of time to continue our testing and we’ll get there if it’s humanely possible to get there – and I believe it is.”

Crawley added that Nine had “tougher things than tracking a pink ball to worry about this year”.

“People ring every year before the cricket starts, asking what innovations we have for the summer,” he said.

“Tracking a pink ball isn’t the newest and biggest thing we’ll be doing this year.

“But I believe you shouldn’t talk about them until you do it. You never brag about something before you’ve done it.”

 A CA spokesperson echoed Crawley’s confidence. Animation Research were not part of Nine’s pink-ball trial at the MCG earlier this year, however they conducted DRS tests at Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium in August.

“We still haven’t done a single game with a pink ball, let alone a day-night Test,” Taylor told Fairfax Media.

“People knew we had been testing down at the stadium in Dunedin. People asked was it working and in all honesty, I had to say it wasn’t working.

“We can track it some of the time.”

Animation’s Virtual Eye program added ball tracking to its cricket repertoire in 2006 and the technology has improved remarkably since.

The ICC introduced DRS in 2009, allowing players to review umpires’ lbw verdicts with the help of Virtual Eye.

India remain staunchly opposed to DRS, doubting the accuracy of ball-tracking technology, but other Test-playing nations have largely embraced the concept.

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