God help me - the Test Cricket thread

[LP]

Thought the new kids Shardul and Natajaran swung the ball well for India, the former looks a real player as he can bat and get his pace up to 140km as well. IMO the AUS pitches/condition are all about 6'6" bowlers hitting the deck hard and trying to intimidate the opposition and swing bowlers are more of a novelty. When banana bender bowlers like Boult and Southee struggle to swing it when they play in Aus who would want be a swing bowler?

And we give the kookaburra the heave-ho to placate the pommie bastards!

For the Duke, which is now of course owned and made in India, more BCCI tenticles?

[DJC]

The scary thing about Indian cricket is that their Test players aren't all from private schools now.  Now wonder they have such depth!

[LP]

The scary thing about Indian cricket is that their Test players aren't all from private schools now.  Now wonder they have such depth!

Are you seriously asserting privilege derails, subdues or obstructs progress?

How does that work with the caste system? :o

[capcom]

For the Duke, which is now of course owned and made in India, more BCCI tenticles?

LP

"Currently, the red Dukes cricket ball is used by England, West Indies and Ireland for Test matches. India tends to prefer the locally-manufactured SG cricket ball while the other Test-playing nations use the Australian-manufactured Kookaburra ball".

That's the info I have and not sure they're (the Dukes) are made in India ... perhaps Pakistan

[LP]

LP

"Currently, the red Dukes cricket ball is used by England, West Indies and Ireland for Test matches. India tends to prefer the locally-manufactured SG cricket ball while the other Test-playing nations use the Australian-manufactured Kookaburra ball".

That's the info I have and not sure they're (the Dukes) are made in India ... perhaps Pakistan

I thought that SG bought out the old Duke factory a year or two back, I recall watching a story about it during the last ashes.

I know Australia dominates the sales of the fancy coloured stuff for T20 and ODI, white. yellow, pink, orange, etc., etc. I'm not sure about the traditional pills.

[ElwoodBlues1]

Are you seriously asserting privilege derails, subdues or obstructs progress?

How does that work with the caste system? :o

Shubmann Gill is from a well to do family and his father had the plantation/farm workers giving him throw down bouncers to practice his skills...seemed to work well.
Conversely I think Natajaran was plucked from obscurity and his parents were of a humble village background so India must have a very wide network of talent scouts combing all the states and watching cricket at all levels.
The IPL has become a fertile grounding for Indian players and they receive coaching from some of the best in the world both playing and retirees...ie Ricky Ponting is helping train some of those players who beat us and has had a lot to do with players like Pant. No doubt money and resources are huge like the population and its hard to see them ever falling over like what happened to
the West Indies after they ruled world cricket for a decade.

[DJC]

I understand that British Cricket Balls Ltd still makes Dukes balls.  The company has been owned by an expat Indian since the mid 1980s.

The wording of the descriptions of the range of Dukes cricket balls suggests that only the top of the range balls are still manufactured entirely in England:

https://www.dukescricket.co.uk/Dukes_Cri...balls.html

[LP]

I understand that British Cricket Balls Ltd still makes Dukes balls.  The company has been owned by an expat Indian since the mid 1980s.

The wording of the descriptions of the range of Dukes cricket balls suggests that only the top of the range balls are still manufactured entirely in England:

https://www.dukescricket.co.uk/Dukes_Cri...balls.html

Fair enough, I'm probably wrong but I'm sure I watched a doco during the last Ashes series talking about the takeover of Duke by an Indian Sporting goods maker SG. The deal was that Duke gain access to a coloured pill technology that competes with Kookaburra, allowing Duke to market coloured pills. To be fair I can't recall if they said manufacture of the traditional balls was moving to India or perhaps it was just the coloured stuff.

It could be that SG bought the old Dukes factory, and Dukes moved to the new location, that might be where I've got it wrong.

I do remember a whole segment in the doco showing the SG using the traditional Dukes techniques for the manufacture of first class pills, all still done by hand.

[Milhanna13]

And we give the kookaburra the heave-ho to placate the pommie bastards!

For the Duke, which is now of course owned and made in India, more BCCI tenticles?

I thought we started using the Duke, for half of the Shield season, so that our guys would have experience with it, prior to an Ashes tour.  Unlike previous tours, where the first time some guys saw a Duke was when they openned a bag of balls in the first net session of the tour.  Actually seemed like a rare logical decision for CA

[DJC]

[member=153]LP[/member] Perhaps SG manufactures cricket balls for finishing by BCB.  Their website indicates diminishing English involvement in manufacture as you go down the range.  I can imagine a wizened old gaffer sitting at a scarred workbench and lovingly stitching Dukes balls destined for Test cricket.  I hope he has an apprentice