Thaindian News

Melbourne, Feb2 6 (ANI): Fluorescent orange has been rated as a superior option to the pink cricket balls to be used during night Test cricket.

Dilip Jajodia, managing director of English firm Dukes, which is competing with Kookaburra to invent a ball suited to night Test matches, said: My view is that fluorescent orange is the best chance.”

“I have asked a lot of spectators and they go for orange every time. The technology is there to do almost anything. Technology has moved on since the last time orange balls were tried,” The Herald Sun quoted him, as saying.

Pink balls proved pale imitations of their red cousins in experiments this week.

Former Australian Test batsman Martin Love, who watched the pink ball being used in a Futures League game between Queensland and New South Wales at Allan Border Field, remembers the lukewarm reception orange balls received in Sheffield Shield games the mid-1990s.

“The orange balls were not that bad to face when you batted, but difficult to field at night when they developed a comet-like trail. Particularly from side-on when you tried to follow it and it was a bit of a blur,” Love said.

The pink Dukes balls did not get high marks at Allan Border Field because players found bits of paint came off to reveal a white cover beneath.

Some of the balls also went out of shape and were impossible to shine.

The consensus among many Border Field observers was that painted balls are not suitable and, until dyed pink leather capable of lasting 80 overs can be developed, the experiment does not have a genuine chance of success.

But Jajodia said this type of ball will never be invented. (ANI)