Giles White: Kookaburra Ball Trial Would Be “Interesting”

Hampshire’s Director of Cricket, Giles White, says the idea of using the Kookaburra ball in next year’s County Championship would be “interesting”.

The proposal was put forward in last year’s high-performance review by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) who hoped it would test seam bowlers’ skills more.

“It will be interesting to see if anything comes of it and whether it's a different game with a different ball,” White said.

“It’s just throwing another variable into the season to see how players react and which players can still take wickets influence games.”

White also spoke of the challenge that the Australian ball would offer bowlers compared to the Dukes ball which is currently in use.

“When we play away from home as an England side, we are playing with a Kookaburra ball and it's a slightly different skill needed to get your 20 wickets with it,” he explained.

“Pace comes into it, it doesn’t do quite so much off the seam which is not as pronounced and maybe the ball wouldn’t swing for as long.

“It’s likely that it will promote spin bowling and raw pace, in simple terms.”

The Kookaburra ball could be in use for Hampshire's home match against Middlesex and the trip to Taunton to take on Somerset in June and July.

Additionally, White discussed the annual winter meeting of county coaches and directors of cricket which took place earlier this month, where England Test captain, Ben Stokes, and Head Coach, Brendan McCullum offered an insight into their new approach to red-ball cricket.

He described the Test side’s new style as “fantastic to watch” but said that Stokes and McCullum did not tell counties how they should play.

“There was certainly no directive to play that brand of cricket,” he said.

“What they emphasised more than anything was playing to a player's strengths and working with those.”

“I found it refreshing to chat to them, and I believe that everyone got quite a lot out of it.”

White then reflected on Hampshire’s 2022 County Championship campaign and how that had shown signs of change already occurring in the longer forms of the game.

“If you look back on our season last year, we only drew one game in the whole season which is unusual.”

“Actually, it was only the weather that stopped us having a result in every game last summer, with the game against Lancashire rained off when we were in a decent position.”

“In my mind, it’s a combination of where Stokes and McCullum have taken the Test side, but also the influence of white-ball cricket and the player skill set that is now coming into the red-ball game.”

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