Cricket: Dukes balls recalled by concerned Lord's

THE brand of ball used in last week's three Texaco Trophy matches between England and Australia has been, so to speak, blackballed by the Test and County Cricket Board, writes Martin Johnson.

This does not, however, fall into the smog and designer stubble category of finding excuses for England's poor performances - simply that the ball does not comply with board specifications. All stocks of the 'Duke' ball will be returned to Lord's, as will another brand made by the same company, British Cricket Balls Ltd, the 'Twort'. The reason, in both cases, is an illegal seam, and for the time being only 'Reader' balls will be used in domestic cricket and the Ashes series.

The problem came to light during the Australians' opening first-class match of the tour earlier this month at Worcester, when a Twort was reported by the umpires as having a 'prouder than usual seam'. Worcestershire were bowled out for 90 in their first innings, although against the same brand of ball, they then made 458 for 4 declared in their second innings.

Following the umpires' report, a board investigation was ordered, and two out of three Duke balls were found to have too pronounced a seam. Ironically, it was the fact that the Reader was thought to be giving too much assistance to bowlers that led to the regulation regarding seams to be introduced three years ago.

The Reader was the prevalent ball in domestic cricket when the Australians were last here in 1989, and after a summer in which every Tom, Dick and Harry medium-pacer was cleaning up in county cricket, it was declared to be having an adverse affect on bowling standards. When the same bowlers were asked to bowl with a lower- seamed ball to the likes of Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh in the Test series, the seam was further flattened by bouncing off the boundary boards.

The competition between Dukes and Readers is such that the former will not easily overcome this dent to their reputation, and the board's cricket secretary, Tim Lamb, said yesterday: 'Only when we are satisfied that the BCB balls conform to regulations will they be used again this summer.'