Harbhajan Singh: Pink ball cricket is here to stay

Harbhajan Singh

Kolkata: Harbhajan Singh wants cricketers to embrace the difficulties while batting or bowling with the pink ball in order to get better. "I've heard people say that dew makes it very tough to grip the pink ball. This happens with the white ball too. You have to wipe the ball and practise in the nets with a wet ball. The more you play with it, the better you will become," said Harbhajan who was in Kolkata to witness the India v Bangladesh Test here.

The Eden Gardens has a special place in Harbhajan Singh's heart because it was here that he became India's first hat-trick taker in Test cricket during the epic 2001 series against Australia. "Pink ball cricket is here to say. It may not be played a lot now, but there will come a time when international players won't be able to get away from the concept. Cricket with all three balls - red, white and pink - will coexist. The spectators love the pink ball; I am sure kids love it too," he added.

The ace off-spinner felt that Bangladesh's problems in the pink ball Test were self-inflicted. "Their batsmen played inside the crease and didn't step out like the Indian batsmen did so well. Had they done that, they wouldn't have been that disastrous," Harbhajan said. Asked to single out one spinner who would have been highly successful with the pink ball, Harbhajan pointed to his fellow off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan and said: "I think Murali would have got a lot of wickets with the pink ball simply because he had so much variety in his armoury."

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