That red thing in his hand is a Kookaburra, but chances are Siddharth Trivedi didn't get to practise with it © Getty Images

Dear readers

In the previous post I wrote about the decision, taken a couple of years ago, to use the Kookaburra ball in the Duleep Trophy. We were excited about this change, but we faced a strange situation right at the beginning. These Kookaburra balls are really expensive - over Rs 3000 - and hence were not made available for use in our practice sessions, even on the days before the matches. It was a little bizarre to practise with an SG Test ball when the game was to be played with the Kookaburra. But who were we to complain, and more importantly to whom?

The second bit of surprise came when the match referee explained the playing conditions to the captains. It was decided that the ball would not be changed even if it went out of shape. Reason? There weren't enough spare balls available! The hosting association was provided with only six to eight new balls to conduct the match, out of which one was to be used at the start of every innings in the match. They were given a cushion of four additional balls in case the teams took new balls after 80 overs. It goes without saying that the number of balls provided to the fielding team to choose the match ball from kept reducing by one with every innings. Normally, the fielding team is provided with 10-12 balls to choose from, but these were not normal balls.

Things changed in the following year. We were given adequate number of balls to practise with, but on the condition of returning it to the hosts after the net session. The host association was accountable for these balls, and had to return the balls to the BCCI after the game. Or so we were told. We didn't have a problem with this arrangement. The only difference from a normal training session was that we were still doing the fielding drills before the match with the same old SG Test balls. Things improve further this year, and we faced no such problem. There were more than enough balls to practise with and to choose the match balls from.

We at Delhi still face the same problem – the unavailability of the Kookaburra balls for practice ahead of the Ranji one-day tournament, which will be played with the white Kookaburra balls. We are told that the balls are too expensive, and hence we must make do with some other local brand that is white in colour, to get the feel of the white ball. We would be given an odd Kookaburra or two every now and then in the interim. I am struggling to get my head around this decision. Yes the balls are expensive, and must therefore be used sparingly, but definitely not as scarcely. If money is such an issue with the association then how the same association managed (if a newspaper article is to be believed) to spend Rs 40 lakh on buying tracksuits for the cops and another obscene amount (nearly Rs 28 lakh) for an AGM totally stumps me.

Ours is not the only association with this queer arrangement. Most associations across the country are doing exactly the same thing. To make matters even worse this isn't restricted to just Kookaburra balls. When it comes to the Ranji Trophy even the SG Test ball is considered a luxury that most teams can't enjoy during practice sessions. Instead they practise with other cheaper balls. Things aren't that bad with our association, though, when it comes to red balls.

Another question that comes to my mind about the whole exercise of using Kookaburra balls for the Duleep Trophy is, whether it really serves its purpose of getting the players used to a different brand? It makes little difference because we play with these balls only once in a year. And only a handful of players at that. With the Duleep Trophy format changed to knock-outs, a couple of teams play only one game each, which could easily be just one innings. And the lucky ones who got the feel for longer than the rest find it difficult to remember its nuances for one full year.

To me, the idea of using these balls is to help the players modify or even remodel their game to suit this ball, and hence make it better suited for international cricket. But since it happens only once a year, it serves very little purpose. I'd suggest that every alternate round of the Ranji Trophy should be held with the Kookaburra balls. It will give everyone playing domestic cricket the feel of the Kookaburra balls, and also provide a different kind of challenge for the players. I firmly believe that man is a product of his circumstances, and if we play our cricket with SG Test balls day in and day out, we will become players suited for that particular ball. If we are exposed to Kookaburra balls from an early stage, our fast bowlers will learn to hit the deck hard, spinners will learn to put more work on the ball, batsmen will learn to bat cautiously when the ball is new, and most importantly our curators will learn to make the tracks hard and bouncy because there won't be a way out.

Take care

	"Duleep Trophy might have lost a bit of its sheen and importance in the recent past, but it is still very dear to me" © Cricinfo Ltd

Dear readers

When I started playing first-class cricket about a decade ago, the whole purpose of playing Ranji Trophy was to do enough to get picked for North Zone in Duleep Trophy. The Ranji format was different back then. Teams were divided into zones, and would play each other before the top two qualified for the knock-outs. Hence the media coverage was also restricted to the matches in the particular zone. For example we would rarely get to know about the matches happening in the south or east. I'm sure it must have been the same for other zones too.

Doing well was important and one got noticed all right, but only in his respective zone - unless someone did something out of the ordinary, something like a triple-century or 15 wickets in a match. The knock-out matches were always pretty important, but there were only a handful of teams involved.

The real chance to get noticed at the national level would come when one represented the zonal side in Duleep Trophy. This was an opportunity for players from different states to see each other play. This tournament also included the India players since a not-so-crowded international calendar during this period allowed them to play. The players in the Indian team would often share details of up-and-coming cricketers with each other, but that was also limited to a player's knowledge of the zone he played in. The Duleep Trophy was the only platform where one would compete against the best in the country, and hence performances would get noticed too.

Those days, an ordinary outing in Duleep Trophy would severely hamper one's chances to represent the country. One would have to wait for the next edition of the tournament, which obviously happened after a year, to repair the damage.

But now that the Ranji format has changed it has become a national tournament in the true sense of the word. With the teams divided into two divisions and in two separate pools thereafter, teams get to play against different teams every year irrespective of the zones. The media coverage of Ranji Trophy has also changed with the format, and now we can follow almost every team's fortunes. One need not wait till the Duleep Trophy to know which guy is doing well in the season. While the Ranji Trophy has become more important, the importance of the Duleep Trophy has become somewhat diluted. Performing extremely well in the Duleep Trophy is no longer the only way to impress the selectors. And the fact that a lot of players play for India before playing for their respective zones these days just reiterates my point. This probably isn't such a bad thing for a player because now he has more avenues and hence more chances to leave a mark. A couple of bad innings in the Duleep Trophy are not going to push his career back by a year. On the contrary I see it as an opportunity to continue the good work, and add up to the tally of runs or wickets for the season.

The Duleep Trophy might have lost a bit of its sheen and importance in the recent past, but it is still very dear to me.

Cheers