Spinners will get a grip because of prominent SG seam, asserts Premdip Chatterjee
Premdip Chatterjee, the on-field umpire for India’s first-ever pink ball match, has insisted that spinners can get a grip thanks to SG’s prominent seam. The BCCI panel umpire has also added that the arm-ball and flippers would cause more problems for batsmen than the normal spinning deliveries.
Although Pink Ball D/N Test is branded as the saving grace for the longest version of the game, the various technicalities surrounding the ball has also brought a lot of questions to the fore. Pink ball requires extra lacquer and grass so as to keep its colour intact - which is very important under the lights - but that also meant it would swing and seam more while keeping spinners at the bay.
This would also mark SG’s first foray in the pink ball market, as the CAB Super League final since 2016 use Kookaburra with BCCI also taking the safe route of the Australian ball manufacture company in the Duleep Trophy. However, Chatterjee, among the few umpires to have the opportunity to officiate three Pink ball matches so far, feels that the pronounced seam in the SG ball would keep the spinners in good stead while giving them the ability to skid the ball off the surface.
“I can assure you that there will be a huge difference in the seam of the ball in SG and Kookaburra because Kookaburra doesn’t have a prominent seam. The seam tends to be more on the surface of the ball whereas SG’s seam is always prominent. So because of that normally whether it is a red ball or white ball, the spinners tend to get a better grip with the SG ball, which is not in case of Kookaburra,” Chatterjee told SportsCafe.
“When the grass will be more you must not forget that the spinners have flipper, the arm-ball and the faster one. If the grass will be more and the ball skids on, it will be very difficult for the batsman to handle any spinner when the ball skids off the pitch. There might not be a huge amount of turn that’s what I believe.”
While the normal condition of Pink Ball takes spinner and reverse swing out of the equation, it would eventually mean dew management become the crucial factor. India is certain to play with an unchanged XI - with Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja being the force behind the team’s glorious home record - but dew factor mildly crosses the team management’s mind when selecting the team.
“Dew is going to play a big factor. Dew management is going to play a very crucial part in the match. Because with the dew the ball gets slippery and it is very difficult for the spinners to grip. Secondly, it becomes easier for the batsman to bat as the ball becomes heavier. If due is too much, the outfield will be heavy so I cannot say that the ball will roll faster on the outfield. So I believe there should be more grass on the pitch and less grass thickness on the outfield.
“You see, we are having three quality world-class medium pacers right now. Along with them, we are having five bowlers because if you want to win the Test match you need to take 20 wickets of the opponent. So this Indian team has just changed the concept by having six batsmen and five bowlers by having seven batsmen including the wicket-keeper and four bowlers. We have five quality bowlers.
“When you are talking about Ravichandran Ashwin, he is probably the best spin bowler in the world for a few years. He has so many varieties that he can do anything with any ball. And we all know Ravindra Jadeja bowls the arm-ball which comes into the right-hander, normally it becomes very difficult to handle him. He might become a left-arm medium-pacer as well (on such a surface),” Chatterjee, who has officiated more than 100 matches at the Eden Gardens, added.
Dean Jones recently suggested that balls should be taken off if it gets wet in a Pink Ball match and be replaced by a new one in order to tackle the challenges of dew. Although the lacquer on the ball is heavy, there have been instances - like in Duleep Trophy in 2016 - when the ball lost its visibility under lights. Chatterjee feels umpires should be prepared to change the ball frequently because it is a challenge that can’t be discounted.
“Firstly, we are having two white balls in the 50-over games nowadays because of the visibility of the balls. The colour is not lasting. When you were there in that match, the colour of the ball was not a problem at all. The ball was very hard and even after many overs it still looked like a new ball. But in this case, we have to be very careful about the colour because if the ball gets discoloured then we might have to change the ball very frequently which is something different for the Test match,” the 51-year-old added.
One of the things that have historically been a difficult challenge for batsmen to counter at the Eden Gardens has been to nullify the excessive amount of swing in the Post-tea session. Teams have been known to bat cautiously in the afternoon sessions in Kolkata because of the breeze from the Ganges side makes the ball move in the air. Chatterjee cautioned that teams need to be wary of that challenge.
“From my own experience of officiating over 100 games at the venue, I know for a fact that after the tea session, because the Ganges is by the side of the Eden Gardens, suddenly the breeze starts blowing and with the breeze, it tends to swing more. If you remember the India Pakistan Test match in the Asian Test Championship (In 1999). Initially in the morning, the movement will always be there at the Eden Gardens and again after the morning one hour in the normal Test match, the movement tends to cut-off and after lunch, it becomes a batting paradise. But after tea, the ball suddenly starts to move again because of the breeze coming from the Ganges.”
“The thing is when you are playing the match at the coastal area, the breeze is there for the entire 24 hours but here suddenly the breeze picks up pace after tea and the ball tends to move a lot. All I can pray to the Almighty that the efforts taken by the BCCI should be a revolutionary one for Indian cricket and the right place to start because we had the first pink-ball match in Asia. I am very much excited to see what happens with the pink SG ball when the bowler comes running in either from the Pavilion end or from the High Court end.”
When asked if the colour of the ball would bring in a different challenge of sorts for the match officials, including the umpires, Chatterjee had a very straightforward answer.
“To be honest, initially it wasn’t tough in the beginning because the match started in the afternoon when the Sun is out there and no artificial light. But what I felt in three matches that I have officiated with the pink ball, when the artificial lights are on, at that juncture the visibility might become a problem. Secondly, in the night time, the ball tends to have a huge amount of movement. So from an umpire’s perspective, one has to be very careful all through because there is no scope for relaxation when you are officiating a match with pink ball. Because you never know suddenly at 7:30 in the evening the ball might move a huge amount which it didn’t till that point of time,” the Kolkata man, who would miss the Test match at his home town for his BCCI match officiating commitments in Dehradun, concluded.
