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It is a week to go for the ICC World Test Championship final between India and New Zealand. While India are already at Southampton, the venue for the marquee event, New Zealand are currently in Birmingham playing the second Test match against England post which they will proceed to the venue. Amid a lot of talks going on about the conditions, the pitch and the possible tactics from both sides, the Dukes ball with which the inaugural ICC Test Championship final will be played has been revealed.
Notably, Indian businessman Dilip Jajodia, who currently owns the British Cricket Balls Ltd which manufactures the Dukes Cricket Balls, showed the ball to the world in a recent interview. Jajodia described it as an "honour" for him to supply balls for the all-important clash between India and New Zealand.
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The ball has a special logo on it as mandated by the International Cricket Council (ICC). Jajodia made these revelations on SportsTak. He further said that the balls will be sent to the Indian team ahead of the match for practice sessions and similarly a certain number of balls will be allocated to the Kiwis. "It is interesting that the two finalists (India and New Zealand) don't normally use our ball," he highlighted.
He further said that one of the biggest disadvantages of manufacturing a cricket ball is that it cannot be tested anywhere since it has to be handed brand new.
"The big problems with cricket balls are I can't test this in any way before I hand it over to the players because it has to be brand new. So, a failure of a product only appears in use (during a match)," he said.