Sporting Goods Manufacturer Kookaburra Tasked With Finding Color For Cricket Ball

Sporting goods manufacturer Kookaburra's "quest to crack the coloured-ball code continues" even though Cricket Australia and the Int'l Cricket Council have shelved their trials, according to Andrew Faulkner of the THE AUSTRALIAN. Kookaburra "is providing pink balls for a day-night match" between the Marylebone Cricket Club and Warwickshire in Abu Dhabi beginning on Sunday. Cricket Australia has suspended official trials, but Kookaburra Dir Rob Elliot said that "his company was continuing the search." Elliot: "We never stop trying and we never stop trialling." The ICC last year "gave its blessing for day-night Tests to be played," but had since handed responsibility for finding a suitable colored ball back to its member nations. CA said it was "not actively running a coloured-ball research program". Testing of various colors -- "including pink, orange and yellow -- over more than five years" has failed to find a ball that holds its color and shape. Elliot said: "All we can do is keep trying" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 3/18).