The early-season trial of the Kookaburra ball in the County Championship has been hailed as a success by Rob Key, with the England men’s team director keen to make it a permanent fixture throughout the domestic first-class summer.
Speaking to the Guardian after the second round of fixtures to use the Kookaburra, Key shared his view that using a less bowler-friendly ball than the traditional Dukes had brought out the requisite skills for Test cricket by increasing the volume of spin bowling, rewarding seamers with extra pace and allowing batters to go big when set.
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“I think it’s been fantastic,” said Key. “You see what four-day cricket is meant to be. I’ve watched quite a bit this week and seen some bloody good cricket. I would use the Kookaburra all the time. English cricket would be much better off for it.”
All nine matches in the second round ended in draws for just the third time in history, it should be noted, while Essex beating Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in their opening fixtures remains the one positive result from the 18 so far. The Kookaburra, which has a less prominent seam and goes softer earlier, has clearly been a significant factor.
Indeed, while batting averages have been higher in April in recent years, it has been a veritable feast to start the 2024 season, with 44.49 runs per wicket the highest figure in a month since September 1938. Ten scores of 150 or more were made in round two – a record for a single set of championship fixtures starting on the same day. Across the four Kookaburra rounds in the last two years there have been 39.54 runs scored per wicket, compared with 31.79 in 12 Dukes ball rounds in 2023.
Key said: “The weather has got in the way at times and seven of those nine matches [in round two] could have seen a result. But county cricket is meant to go four days. This week has shown its rewarding the right type of players. Cricket is about watching pace bowlers, spinners and really good batting. Four days is about the journey.”
After the move was recommended in 2022 by Andrew Strauss’s high performance eview, this is the second season to see the Kookaburra deployed. Two rounds last year have increased to four this summer, with Kookaburra returning for rounds 12 and 13 in September. Key originally pushed for half of the season but, despite initial agreement at a meeting of directors of cricket, saw the counties come back with a compromise.
The deployment of spin has increased. Slow bowlers sent down 37% of deliveries in the first two rounds, compared with just 17% in the equivalent rounds last year. Key has noted early success for wrist-spinners among them, with Mason Crane, Calvin Harrison, Matt Critchley and Cameron Steel in the wickets. Surrey, the defending champions, have already taken more wickets with spin (18) than the whole of last season (17).
Kasey Aldridge, with eight wickets at the Oval for Lancashire, and Zaman Akhter, with six for Gloucestershire against Yorkshire, including Joe Root and Harry Brook, are among the seamers to catch Key’s eye in the latest round, having “run in with a bit of pace”. The England team director also noted Sam Cook’s 10-wicket match for Essex in Nottingham, a welcome name-check for a player who has 199 championship wickets at 16.8 since 2019.
“The pitches are slow this time of year but watching medium pacers is a waste of time,” said Key. “Teams need to find quicker bowlers or ones who will force a wicket. You can’t just keep running up bowling at 75mph. And in terms of those guys who are not express, you really work out who can bowl. Sam Cook, that was seriously impressive what he did.”
It has been particularly hard going for Middlesex, who have shipped 1,203 runs for just 11 wickets in two matches. At Edgbaston, where the groundsman, Gary Barwell, says he produced the same pitch by way of grass and rolling as round two last year, a couple of England hopefuls in Matt Potts (none for 106 from 23 overs) and Brydon Carse (none for 128 from 19) struggled as Warwickshire racked up 698 for three declared against Durham.
Key said: “That looked a turgid [slow] pitch but [Potts and Carse] are much better equipped for international cricket than if they bowled on English snake pits with a Dukes ball moving all over the place. The best bowlers come from the flattest pitches.
“Why do we think in India their batters come into the Test side averaging 70 [in the Ranji Trophy]? Do you think they’re playing with a little nibbly Dukes ball where it’s doing all sorts? What do we want to be? I want us to be the best team in the world for a generation; this will be one way to do that.”
Potts, who underlined the difference by shutting down the Edgbaston match with an unbeaten 149 as nightwatcher, said he had no issues with further use of the Kookaburra but did make the point that spring conditions, chiefly moist outfields, negate one of the skills the Australian ball will teach bowlers: reverse swing.
With a number of critics among the counties, not least Surrey’s director of cricket, Alec Stewart, Key’s desire to see the Kookaburra used all season – something he does not think should affect the use of the Dukes in home Tests – may be tricky to get across the line. To make the switch permanent will require a consensus among the counties and, ultimately, sign-off from the England and Wales Cricket Board’s professional game committee.
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