Mark Murphy has backed the Victorian Country Cricket League’s decision to use a new brand of ball for Melbourne Country Week.
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The VCCL has opted to replace the Platypus ball with a Dukes ball.
Dukes is a English-made hand-stitched four-piece leather cricket ball used in all Ashes Test matches and County Cricket in the UK.
But the Brierly-Christ Church captain-coach, who spent the winter playing in England, did make his own suggestion.
"It is good to trial something else because I think with the Platypus balls didn't have much in it at all for the bowler really,” he said.
"Ideally I would like to see the Kookaburra ball and a white one seems most teams are all wearing colours now.
"Even the English in their one-dayers use a white Kookaburra so I don't see why they didn't go in that direction, but it is still something different and we will wait and see.
"It is a bit strange having the red into the coloured clothing, it would be pretty ideal if you had the white ball.”
The all-rounder said despite talk the Dukes balls would have a big influence he didn’t believe they would.
"Over in England you have the overcast conditions and the wickets are a bit more greener with more grass so the balls tend to last a lot longer,” he said.
"And with the windy and overcast conditions they swing around a bit, here in January and February the sun will be out and wickets are hard and flat so it won't have a massive impact."
Murphy also made a suggestion for country week selectors if they were to factor in the ball change.
"A few more people might think to take more swing bowlers, but I don't think they will have a massive impact,” he said.
"I'd probably look more the batting side of things, I found the Dukes ball came off the bat a lot better and the English players have said that was one of the biggest things.
"The batsmen will find the ball will come off a lot quicker and they will hit the ball fairly sweet. But there will probably be a bit more in it for the bowler at the start.”