Players unhappy with SG white balls being used in T20s

The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy is the zonal T20 tournament in India which has been preponed so that the players can showcase their talent before the auction of the Indian Premier League(IPL). The players playing in the zonal T20 league were unhappy as the BCCI decided to use white SG balls for the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 domestic tournament.

The board switched from Kookaburra regular to Kookaburra turf balls back in 2015 so that the players could get a feel of the balls which were being used at the highest level(International and IPL). This version of the white SG ball hasn’t pleased the players and the players have shown their concerns over the ball. According to a few players, the ball is hard like marble and is not travelling the distance like the turf balls do. This is a newly upgraded variety of the SG ball and is being used for the first time in this tournament.

“This doesn’t feel right at all”

“I don’t know why they are using this ball. This doesn’t feel right at all,” an India cricketer told TOI on Wednesday. “If the ODIs and T20Is at home are played with the Kookaburra Turf balls, it makes little sense to play with these balls in domestic T20,” the player added. The players are dissatisfied as expected, the main motive to prepone the tournament was to allow the players to showcase their abilities and a change in the type of ball may disturb the rhythm of the players.

“The seam is a lot more pronounced. The ball is taking a lot more turn and if the morning pitch has some assistance, it moves a lot more than usual,” explained the player.

The players are accustomed to playing with the Kookaburra ball and this change doesn’t seem to have pleased most of them. With the IPL auction coming at the end of this month, the players are putting their hearts out to impress franchises with their performances.