Pink ball will be hard to sustain in subcontinent: Stephen O'Keefe

Australian left-arm spinner Stephen O’Keefe believes that the pink ball will be hard to sustain in subcontinent conditions. He is currently in India to get accustomed to the sub-continent conditions ahead of the Australia’s tour of Sri Lanka.

“In its present form, pink ball will be hard to sustain if the condition of the wickets remains like this (in India). The ball does roughen, gets scuffed up pretty easy and changes colour. Play gets difficult once the pink fades,” he said.

He feels that the current ball needs to be modified to last in these conditions. “The wear and tear of the pitches here will take a fair bit out of the ball. I’m not sure if the SG ball behaves differently. But I don’t think it would last here in its current form,” O’Keefe said on the sidelines of a training session here on Friday.

“There are ways in which the ball can be improved. They should try and ensure the ball does not deteriorate quickly,” he added.

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The 31-year old said that spinners will definitely have an edge over the batsmen as it is hard for the batsmen to pick the seam of the ball. “The benefit for the spinners is it’s harder for the batsmen to pick the seam on the ball. When it’s in full flight, the batsmen can’t see the seam and thus don’t know which way the revolutions are on it. That has helped me have a bit of success,” he pointed out.

But, it would be a different story when the due factor comes in. He said that the basic idea is to get the pink ball as much similar as the red ball. “The idea should be to get it to move like the red ball; to get it as close to the red ball as possible. As of now, with the pink ball, the twilight hours could be quite hard to bat in, as it can swing more under lights, and if you’re playing on a grassy wicket it tends to do a bit more.”

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“If it is kept improving, I think it’ll certainly be around to stay,” O’Keefe concluded on a positive note.