Kookaburra ball is a wake-up call for English fast bowling

Finished turf balls at the Kookaburra cricket ball factory at Moorabbin in Melbourne, October 24, 2012. This iconic manufacturer of Australian cricket balls is angered that Cricket Australia intends to introduce the English-made Dukes balls into domestic games. Kookaburra has virtually monopolised the local cricket ball market

The Kookaburra ball has led to big scores and an entire round of draws in the Championship but I have liked the experiment and would like to see it rolled out further.

I have long advocated trialling the Kookaburra and now I think it would be ideal if we used the ball in half of championship matches and introduced it in the pathway programmes too so young bowlers in second-team cricket learn how to bowl with it before they reach the first XI. That way you are teaching young bowlers before they become professional cricketers how hard it is to bowl at the top level and that it is worth bowling a bit quicker.

There is swing and seam at Test level and the odd iffy pitch so it would be wrong to use the Kookaburra all the time. Plus you would need much bigger squads because seamers would snap in half having to bowl so many overs with it. The challenge of facing a seaming and swinging Dukes ball, knowing which balls to leave and play, is important as well so mixing and matching the two is the right way to go.

I understand the seamers being grumpy and lambasting the Kookaburra but what it has exposed to a few in the county game is that international cricket is hard – especially overseas. If you really want to play for England and be like James Anderson and Stuart Broad then you have to upskill yourself if you bowl at 80-82mph. If you want success at the top you either bowl with pace or you rag it if you are a spinner. Simple. You cannot just rely on bowling a hard length and letting the ball and conditions do the rest of the work for you.

Using the Dukes ball in 2023, the bowling average for fast bowlers across the first two rounds of the County Championship was 30.3, this year it was 44. Likewise bowling strike rate has gone from 52.3 to 73.3. Seamers are having to work for their wickets.

Look at Sam Cook of Essex. He bowled an outstanding spell at Trent Bridge with the Kookaburra. He bowled a beauty to get Ben Slater and made a few come back at the right handers.

For the bowlers it will even out a bit more later in the summer when they use the Kookaburra again for a couple of rounds because the squares will be drier so there will be more reverse swing but they will still not be able to just rely on landing it on a length.

It has also been great to see spinners have a chance to influence games in April. Only 11 per cent of overs were bowled by spinners in the first two rounds of the Championship last year. This summer it was 43 per cent. They are bowling long spells and the top wicket-takers in both divisions are spinners (Cameron Steel for Surrey in Division One and Alex Thomson for Derbyshire in Division Two).

It has also proved we have some very good batsmen in our game. There have been 39 centuries including five doubles and a triple. Joe Clarke has scored two hundreds and is a good player, one of those who struggles against the Dukes but plays well in the kind of flatter conditions you see in Test cricket. County cricket primarily exists for the fans and members but it still has to produce Test cricketers and this will help.

Joe Clarke has score two centuries so far this season – Getty Images/Matthew Lewis

Ollie Price batted 80 overs to save the game for Gloucestershire against Yorkshire which was a great effort and shows his promise. Top quality players like Alex Davies at Warwickshire and Jordan Cox at Essex shone through in the last round. Surrey had a good go at chasing down more than 200 on day four against Somerset. It has been a different style of cricket and I know some have found it a hard watch at times but I’m sure we would have had a couple of results had the weather not intervened.

In fact, the type of cricket has been reminiscent of Test cricket in Australia: the new ball doing a bit but then it flattening out. I have watched a lot of county cricket on the online streams over the past two weeks and it has been a good product. Games have lasted four days and that normally only happens this time of year if it rains. The lowest total in the last round was 198. A year ago that probably won you a game or was a middling score.

It has not been a case of win the toss, win the game. Over the last few years teams have celebrated good wins but when you look down the scorecard you saw a lad won the game for them with 65 off 80 balls. That is no good for Test cricket. What I have seen over the past couple of weeks is batsmen batting a long time and training their brains to do it at the highest level which is what English cricket needs.

One thing that has surprised me is not many teams played Bazball. When I think back to last year, Notts, for example, set up a game or two with bold declarations. With conditions as they have been, I wanted to see more positive declarations from captains and opportunities to set games up on the last day. But teams now get eight points rather than five for a draw so the motivation is not there. It is at odds with how England play. I can imagine Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum scratching their heads at nine draws but they will be pleased that bowlers are learning they need pace to compete at the top and batsmen to play long innings and be ruthless when they get in, rather than worrying about a ball being out there with their name on it.

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