Three IPL teams to use pink balls for nets sessions

A representative from Marleybourne Cricket Club (MCC), guardians of cricketing laws, will be in India this week to oversee the training sessions, using pink balls.

Fraser Stewart, the MCC Laws and Universities Manager, will also collect feedback from players including Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag.  
Around 150 pink balls –– manufactured by Dukes, Kookaburra and SG –– will be tested in the nets for their performance, durability and clarity. 

Stewart said, “The IPL has agreed to test them in their practice sessions. The feedback we get from these elite players will be invaluable to us in our research and extremely important for the future of Test match cricket, as pink balls could be the factor required to play day/night Tests.”

Meanwhile, the training session of Royal Challengers Bangalore started at the M Chinnaswamy stadium with coach Ray Jennings and skipper Anil Kumble leading the way. Karnataka players, who were part of the State team played in the All-India one-day tournament held in Vadodara and Ahmedabad, will join the camp a couple of days later.

Rahul Dravid, who captained Karnataka in the tournament, pacers R Vinay Kumar and A Mithun, who later joined Team India for the third ODI against South Africa, Robin Uthappa and KP Appanna have been given a couple of days rest.