Originally Posted by
Mibbes Aye
Timely point. Cricket Australia used the Duke ball in the Sheffield Shield to prepare for the last Ashes.
By the same token one of the England cricketers, Denly I think, came out the other day calling for English county cricket pitches to be prepared more akin to foreign pitches. The problem there is that short-overs cricket has forced county cricket out to the very start and very end of the season, making it impossible to recreate those flat Southern Hemisphere strips.
I think for a while, home advantage has become key and that has benefitted England as much as anyone. Nevertheless, India, South Africa and England can all, dependent on circumstance, go to Aus with a reasonable chance. Aus went through a real trough but are now looking very strong.
NZ have a fantastic home series record but again, they have one of the top three batsmen in the world at the helm, a bunch of decent to very good guys around him, and a well co-ordinated bowling unit. Plus arguably, the shorter series format there gives them a better chance. At some point they will lose Williamson, Taylor, Guptill, Nicholls, Boult and if they don’t have the replacements lined up they will suffer in the same way Aus did when they lost McGrath, Langer, Hayden, Warne, Gilchrist etc all within a few years.
But to get back to your point, I can see the argument for the Duke on Southern surfaces, but when you look at domestic Aus cricket, it is still producing fantastic bowlers of spin and pace. From a purely selfish point of view, I love a big series Down Under, opening at the Gabba, with the tourists in to bat and the Aussies using the Kookaburra - it isn’t as subtle as the Duke but it can be explosive.
Maybe a compromise - the Kook in Brisbane and Perth, the Duke at the SCG, MCG, and Adelaide :greengrin