Dilip Jajodia, proprietor of the Dukes factory based in England, has urged the International Cricket Council (ICC) to examine the laws with regard to when the second new ball might become available during Test matches. This follows after there were several occasions Edgbaston Test between India and England where both the teams were not pleased with the worn-out condition of the ball. Prior to recommending the international administrative committee to examine the existing policy on the ball change, Jajodia criticized the mindset of contemporary cricketers for always blaming external factors instead of accepting the shortfalls of the pitches or the cricketing abilities of the players. Here is what Jajodia shared in an exclusive conversation with Mumbai Mirror “Nobody talks about the flatness of the wicket or the form and skill of the bowlers. The Dukes ball is known to be bowler-friendly, and now that five or six centuries are being scored in an innings, everyone is blaming the ball. If anything goes wrong, it’s either the pitch or the ball - never the players. When players get ducks, it’s the pitch. When bowlers don’t get wickets, it’s the ball,” “Maybe, the game’s authorities should consider allowing the new ball to be taken somewhere between the 60th and 70th over, instead of the current 80th-over rule. They somehow expect the ball to stay hard until the 79.5th over, which, I’m afraid, it is not possible,” he added. Also Read | Who Claims the Trophy if the WTC Final Ends in a Draw? Jajodia further described the complex process of making the ball and said it was not a deliberate attempt by the Dukes ball manufacturers to settle for less than the best. “No two cowhides are the same. So, there’s a bit of nature involved. The ball is not a machine-made product where every unit is identical. The ball is supposed to deteriorate; it’s not a rock. As far as we, the manufacturers, are concerned, the ball is not being made to fail. We have not lowered our standards or changed our processes,” he noted. Even if India won the second Test by a large margin, captain Shubman Gill expressed his disappointment with the nature of the ball after the game and its being an unequal prospect for the bowlers. “Even more than the pitch, the ball is going soft and going out of shape very quickly. If you know there are only 20 overs of any help, and then you have to spend the rest of the day on the defensive, thinking only about how to stop the runs, then the game loses its essence,” Gill had shared after the game. For the uninitiated, Test matches in England, Ireland and West Indies are all played with the Dukes ball. It is a ball that has developed a reputation of favoring the fast bowlers owing to its hard and pronounced seam.