When Steve O’Keefe, training at the MRF Pace Foundation here, says Brad Hogg is doing a “Benjamin Button” and “draws inspiration” from Rangana Herath, it shows how he feels not his age — that is to say it isn’t a nagging factor. Especially, at 31, when it looks like he might get to play only his third Test in Australia’s upcoming series in Sri Lanka.
The left-arm spinner took time for a brief chat albeit amid cursory peeks at the practice match his peers were at, at the Pachaiyappa’s college ground. Among other things, he had his say on the new colour of talk in cricket: pink.
On his experience with the pink ball
“With the pink ball, I guess the benefit for the spinners is it’s harder for the batsmen to pick the seam on the ball. When it’s in full flight, they can’t see the seam and thus can’t know which way the revolutions are on it; like, whether it’s a square spinner, or over the top, or cross-seam. Atleast that’s the feedback I get from the batsmen. I think it has helped me to have a bit of success in that regard. The first pink ball Test in Australia was a huge success. I think that’s a start. There are ways in which the ball can be improved for certain. If it is kept improving, I think it’ll certainly be around to stay.
On how the pink ball could be improved
The main area to work on is to try and help the ball not to deteriorate quickly. I think the idea should be to get it to move like the red ball; to get it as close to the red ball as possible. As of now, with the pink ball, the twilight hours could be quite hard to bat in, as it can swing more under lights, and if you’re playing on a grassy wicket it tends to do a bit more.
On whether the pink ball is sustainable in subcontinental conditions
If it’s these sort of wickets (in India), I think it would be quite hard with the pink ball in its present form. It does roughen, gets scuffed up pretty easy and changes colour. Play gets difficult once the pink fades. The current ball has to be modified if one wants it to last in these conditions. The wear and tear of the pitches here will take a fair bit out of the ball. I’m not sure if the SG ball behaves different. But I don’t think it would last here in its current form.
