Ricky Ponting called for an investigation into the ball change saga that flipped the fifth Ashes Test on its head, and now his call has been answered.
Australia was 0/135 and on track to chase down a mega total at The Oval that would have secured a 3-1 series win, before a change of the ball dashed any hopes of a miracle victory.
After just 37 overs, England got their way after complaining to the umpires that the ball was out of shape — it seemed to be a dud ball that barely swung.
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The umpires brought out their box of replacements and selected a noticeably shinier Dukes ball that still had the manufacturer’s gold font visible on the side.
Surprise surprise, it swung around corners as England quickly dismissed David Warner, Usman Khawaja and snuffed out any hope of an Australian victory.
Khawaja criticised the process by which the umpires selected the replacement ball.
“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’,” he recalled.
“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.”
News Corp reports the owner of Dukes’ ball is set to launch an internal investigation into the ball replacement saga.
According to the report, there are rumours that the shiny ball in question played very similarly to balls from the 2018-19 batch of Dukes balls that proved a nightmare for batters.
Dukes’ owner Dilip Jajodia told News Corp: “Every ball we produce for the specific season has got a date stamp on it. It would have 2023 marked on it.
“We supply balls to the ground. These balls are not controlled by the ECB or the ICC, it’s controlled by the ground authority. So on this particular occasion (at The Oval) the balls would be done by Surrey.
“Surrey get the supply of balls from us before the season starts and then they start knocking them in, getting them into wear and tear if you like and in my view, they’re probably not doing it that accurately.”
Jajodia said it was “unlikely but not impossible” that a stray 2018-19 ball found its way into the box at the fifth Test.
“I can’t imagine they would risk putting a ball in there with a different date on it,” he said.
“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.”
The ICC swept Australia’s complaints under the rug, issuing a wishy washy statement that didn’t address the specific incident in the fifth Test.
“The ICC does not comment on the decisions taken by umpires in matches,” an ICC 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.”
Ponting was scathing in commentary on Sky Sports seeing the contrast between the two balls.
“There’s no way in the world you can even look at those two balls there and say in any way they are comparable,” the former Australian captain said.
“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.”
England opener Zak Crawley has admitted the ball change “made a difference in the end”, as England dodged what would have been an embarrassing series loss.