Sunil Gavaskar lambastes MCC’s suggestion of using one ball across Tests
Sunil Gavaskar has slammed the suggestion of the MCC to use a standardised ball in World Test Championship and also ridiculed them by asking to standardise everything. He is of the opinion that this will take away the essence of Test cricket and the challenge of playing in overseas conditions.
The World Cricket Committee of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) has suggested that a standardised cricket ball should be used in the World Test Championship which begins rights after the World Cup with the Ashes in England. Currently, there are no ICC specific guidelines and different countries use different balls, for example, the SG ball is used in India, Kookaburra in Australia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and South Africa, and the Dukes ball is used in England and West Indies. The Kookaburra is machine made, whereas, the other two, SG and Dukes are handmade.
As per the committee, they take the suggestions of top players around the world when they make any changes in the laws. India captain Virat Kohli and spinner Ravichandran Ashwin have earlier said that they find the Dukes balls’ quality better than that of the SG and they would be happy if that is standardised across Tests.
“That (MCC) is like Cricket Club of India or the National Cricket Club in Kolkata or Madras Cricket Club in Chennai. It is pretty similar to that, the MCC is saying our committee should (be) listened to (more than the) ICC Committee. And unfortunately a lot of people take them seriously,” says Gavaskar, as reported by PTI.
In recent times, teams have become more competitive and have even been victorious in overseas conditions. India had defeated Australia at their home, even the sixth-ranked Sri Lanka defeated third-ranked South Africa in South Africa. Things have started to change and the former skipper feels that standardising things will take away the challenge of different conditions.
“I personally feel, the whole idea of cricket is the different conditions that you get. You get different conditions from ‘gully’ to ‘gully’ (street to street), leave aside country to country or city to city,” the former Test opener said.
“One gully there might be something, which is just across, you can’t hit the straight ball, there might be a policeman there, there might a fish vendor coming there (while the play is on), which might not happen in next gully, so you cannot standardize.”
At the moment, cricket teams have their focus on limited-overs cricket with the World Cup in England and Wales scheduled to start on May 30. Test cricket will resume with the inaugural World Test Championship which begins after the grand event later in July this year.
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