England insist Ashes ball choice no stitch up

LONDON: England will continue to use balls thought to favour their pace bowlers when they face Australia in a home Ashes series laterthis year.Australia have not won an Ashes series in England since 2001, with their batsmen repeatedly struggling against the likes of James Anderson and Stuart Broad armed with the Dukes balls.A new Dukes ball with a less pronounced seam that deviates less off the pitch and so, in theory, ought to make life easier for batsmen, has been in use in English county cricket this season.But England and Wales Cricket Board managing director Ashley Giles said they had asked Dukes to make a batch of some 500-600 balls to the same specification as those used for Test cricket in England during the past two seasons. Giles said the aim was to ensure a “fair contest” between bat and ball rather than have bowler-friendly “two-day Tests”. Responding to suggestions that England were simply trying to maximise home advantage, Giles told reporters at The Oval on Wednesday: “People will say that, but that’s why we want to be on the front foot. We didn’t want to appear as though we were doing this underhandedly.”The former England spinner added: “I’ve spoken to Cricket Australia, they were fine, and I’ve spoken to Cricket Ireland (who play at Lord’s in July). It’s not as though we’re talking about playing against a bowling attack that isn’t very good.“The Aussies are quite handy themselves,” he said of a fast-bowling line-up that could include Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and James Pattinson. There are elements of risk in choosing to go with this other ball. But clearly Jimmy Anderson is one of our best weapons, one of the best bowlers who has ever played the game, and we want to bring him into the game. We just want to be up front and honest.”The balls used in this season’s Championship are wound tighter at the seam and scores in English cricket’s domestic first-class competition are considerably higher than at a comparable stage in 2018. Cricket balls vary greatly between manufacturers, with the Kookaburra that has long been standard in Australia having a less pronounced seam.Australia, in a bid to try to get used to English conditions, used the 2017/18 specification Dukes ball in second half of their recently concluded 2018/19 first-class Sheffield Shield tournament.

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