Cricket news 2023: Dukes launch Investigation into Ashes ball-swap fiasco

Whispers have emanated out of the English camp suggesting the replacement ball gifted to them in the fitfh Ashes Test was in fact a five years old. An investigation is set to be launched.

An investigation is set to be launched into the Ashes ball-swapping fiasco, amid speculation the offending ball that cost Australia victory was from a previous series when a more bowler-friendly product was used in Tests.

When Australia was 0-135 and hunting history-making Ashes glory in the fifth Test at The Oval earlier this week, a replacement ball granted to England after just 37 overs swung and seamed as if it had a mind of its own and completely changed the course of the game.

Such was the bizarre way the ball behaved from when it was brought out to the middle to the end of the innings, it played strikingly similar to a batch of balls produced from 2018-19 when the Dukes’ ball proved devastating for batsmen.

Since the conclusion of the Test, this masthead understands that whispers have emanated out of the English camp suggesting the replacement ball gifted to them was in fact a five-years’ old version of the Dukes’ ball and not one from the more docile batch produced for 2023.

The original ball (L) vs. the ‘new’ ball (R). Picture: Channel 9.

Test great and leading commentator Ricky Ponting has already called on the International Cricket Council to investigate and now the owner of Dukes’ balls, Dilip Jajodia has vowed to conduct his own probe into the whole mysterious affair that left Australian batsmen including opener Usman Khawaja gobsmacked.

“I walked straight up to Kumar (umpire Kumar Dharmasena) and said straight away, ‘that ball looks nothing like the one we were playing with. I can see writing on it,’” Khawaja said after the match England won to level the series 2-2.

“It felt harder than any ball I’ve faced in this Ashes series – and I’ve opened the batting against the new ball every single time.”

Using a ball from a bygone series when the ball behaved differently should not have happened because all Dukes balls are marked with date stamps and the balls designated for use in this series all have 2023 inscribed into the leather.

If substantiated, the use of an earlier model ball would rank as a significant oversight from match officials given anecdotally at least, players are adamant there was a massive difference between the more docile 2023 ball and the wilder, more bowler-friendly editions produced in 2018 and 2019.

The Times reported that England requested Dukes produce a more pronounced seam for the 2019 Ashes in a bid to expose the techniques of Australia’s batsmen.

Stunning statistics from leading cricket data authority CricViz certainly do nothing to dismiss the theory that a Dukes ball from a previous series may have inadvertently been thrown into the mix.

They have measured the seismic change in ball movement that took place from the moment in the 37th over when umpires succumbed to badgering from England players to replace a ball that was out of shape.

CricViz say up to that point when Khawaja and David Warner were set and firing, the English seamers had found an average of 0.6 degrees of swing and 0.5 degrees of seam movement.

But with the replacement ball, that almost doubled to 1.3 degrees of swing and 0.8 degrees of seam movement.

Ultimately, England rejected the chance to take the second new ball and Australia was bowled out 49 runs shy of victory, with Stuart Broad still swinging the replacement ball around corners to claim the final two wickets of the innings.

Former Australia captain and Ricky Ponting (R) has called on the ICC to launch an official investigation. Picture: Getty Images.

Dukes owner Dilip Jajodia, who specifically hand-picks the balls sent to Test venues for matches said he believed it “unlikely but not impossible” that a 2018 or 2019 ball would somehow find its way into the umpire’s box for the 2023 series.

However, Jajodia vowed to launch his own investigation into the whole episode at The Oval which appeared to have a decisive impact on the outcome of the Test and the series.

“I can’t imagine they would risk putting a ball in there with a different date on it,” Jajodia told this masthead.

“Frankly the match referee should be on top of it.

“We do bang that number in quite hard, so even if the gold comes off the ball is imprinted. It wouldn’t be easy to get rid of it. I’m not saying it’s impossible (it was a 2018 or 2019 ball), but it’s not likely.

“ … I’m going to investigate myself, because it affects me … my name is at stake so it’s important they don’t misallege something wrong with the ball.”

Isn’t it supposed to be like for like when you change the ball 🤔

Must have been a small sample size in the box yesterday

🏏 #Ashes#ENGvAUSpic.twitter.com/CGvNwnbw9n

— Glenn Mitchell (@MitchellGlenn) July 31, 2023

The ICC had not replied to a request for comment at the time of publication but did release this statement publicly after the Test.

“The ICC does not comment on the decisions taken by umpires in matches,” a spokesman said.

“We can, however, confirm that all balls are preselected before the start of every match and when the situation calls for it, the match officials choose the ball that is closest to the condition of the ball that is being replaced.”

Regardless of whether rumours about the vintage of the ball can ever be disproved, Jajodia is more concerned about the process by which umpires selected the replacement ball and called on rule makers to overhaul the flawed system.

England's James Anderson (L) and captain Ben Stokes (R) examine the ball which opener Zak Crawley admits decided the series. Picture: AFP.

TV footage appears to vividly show there were more appropriately aged balls umpires could have selected, yet a virtually newish ball was randomly picked out like a “lucky dip.”

Statistics show England’s chief destroyer Stuart Broad went from 0.2-0.4 degrees of swing with the original ball, to getting 2-3 degrees of swing with the replacement.

As an average that would be considered an extreme jump given one degree is regarded as good swing for a single delivery.

Jajodia said officials needed to go back to the days of marking balls for the amount of overs they had bowled, so such disparity doesn’t occur again in the future.

“They should mark them and they should be put in the box in my view in an orderly manner so whatever state of the game (a corresponding ball can be chosen),” Jajodia said.

“They should now allow bowlers to have a lucky dip which is what they’re doing at the moment.

“Then say, ‘right, here are the two balls nearest to the overs we’re at now, and you can have one of those.’”

Ponting was scathing, simply of the fact umpires appeared to choose a new ball to replace a 37-over old one.

“There’s no way in the world you can even look at those two balls there and say in any way they are comparable,” Ponting said in commentary on Sky Sports.

“At the end of the day, if you are going to change the ball, you want to make sure you get it right, so it’s as close as you possibly can to the one that you’re changing it from. There weren’t too many older condition balls in there – there were some older ones that were picked up, they threw them back.

“I cannot fathom how two international umpires that have done this so many times before, have got this so wrong … I think (it) has to be investigated.“

TV footage appears to show there were more appropriately aged balls umpires could have selected. Picture: Channel 9.

Australian fast bowler Josh Hazlewood told cricket.com in an interview leading into the Ashes why the selection of the Dukes ball can have such a huge bearing on matches, particularly if it’s a ball that’s “been sitting for a quite a while”.

“If it’s dark and feels like it’s a bit smaller and a bit harder, it seems to keep its hardness for a bit longer,” Hazlewood said.

“And if it feels like the ball’s been sitting for a quite a while, it’s as if all the leather’s tightened up.”

If it’s true, a ball from 2018 or 2019 was chosen for the 2023 series it wouldn’t be the first time such an oversight has occurred, according to Hazlewood, who recounted a tale from a 2015 Test against New Zealand in Perth.

“We kept changing balls all the time, and then we got one and I remember thinking ‘geez this is from about 2008’,” Hazlewood told cricket.com of that mid-innings change.

“It was about 30 overs old, so nice and hard and I banged it in and it bounced, and I got Kane Williamson out (caught at mid-on for 166).

“It just felt like that ball was totally different.”

England opener Zak Crawley admitted the replacement ball England got at The Oval virtually decided the series.

“You get good breaks and bad breaks throughout the series and both sides had their share of good breaks at times and bad breaks,” Crawley said.

“It’s fair to say that was certainly a good break for us and probably made the difference in the end because the ball we had before wasn‘t doing much.“

The Australians say the Dukes ball swung and seamed a lot more in 2019 than it has in 2023, where the new ball has skidded on.

“It’s all over exaggerated,” Jajodia said of perceived differences between batches of balls.

“Of course balls vary a bit … you can’t have the same car in 2019 to 2023. But we do make a ball to a standard unlike other balls that are made for Test cricket.”

Originally published as Cricket news 2023: Dukes launch Investigation into Ashes ball-swap fiasco