By IANS
Sydney : Australian paceman Brett Lee is unhappy with the new rule which makes it mandatory for the ball to be replaced after 35 overs in one-day internationals.
Lee told The Australian newspaper that the change to a harder ball gives batsmen an advantage towards the end of an innings and says he is “not a massive fan” of the new International Cricket Council (ICC) regulation that came into effect with the current India-Australian series.
Earlier, balls were only changed when they lost shape, or became discoloured making it difficult for batsmen to sight it.
In the current series, balls have been found to be in significantly better condition when the change was executed.
“The newer balls we’ve been using have been pretty shiny and still have the Kookaburra writing on them,” Lee told the daily.
“It makes it harder for the bowlers because you’re trying to work with a ball that is as old as possible and you come on at the 34th over and you’re bowling with a new ball again.”
Australian coach Tim Nielsen, has noted a change in scoring rates after the change.
“After the 34th over our run rate’s escalated quite a bit,” he told the paper.
“We’ve been going on at four or five an over and it’s got up to seven or eight a couple of times. The new ball is harder and comes on to the bat better.”
Lee has tried with a softer ball during the series to see if he can get some reverse-swing and he has also bowled with the replacement ball.
“It depends on the state of the game,” Nielsen said.
“If you’ve got a new batsman you might bring on the fast bowlers. If you’ve got two batsmen in you might try and batten down the hatches a bit until the ball gets softer.”