Time to place a ban...

[ll0OoO0ll]

Yes, IMO its time to ban tennis ball(tape ball) cricket in Pakistan. The new generation of batsmen it has produced are almost useless. A classical example would be our openers and one downers, namely Farhat, Hafeez, Hameed, Salman, Taufeeq, Faisal Iqbal etc. None of them has shown any reliability at all but a lot of consistency in poor performance.

[Seamer]

What is "tape ball"? Do you mean when one side of the ball has tape applied to make it swing?

[ll0OoO0ll]

What they do is, take a tennis ball and apply PVC tape all around it in a circular shape (making sure you dont pull the tape too hard cuz it will make the ball go out of shape..takes a couple of times to learn the art). Now the ball is ready, special ultra light cricket bats(costs about $2 a piece) are used and the surface is usually a cemented floor or thick plastic sheet placed on the ground to make the ball skid with the speed of light. Since the ball doesnt hurt on the impact, you dont need to practice in the nets, matter of fact there maybe 15 teams playing a 20/20 match inside a single 50 yards ground. Youngsters also play with tape ball in the streets all over Pakistan since there is absolutely no protective gear required. Yes, it makes cricket affordable, lightning fast and very exicting but here are the cons, no lbw out rule, now thats a bummer cuz the batsman never develops the skill and consciousness of how to save himself from getting lbw out. The bats are extremely light and extra wide, and the ball is very light and travels with much different speed and momentum off the pitch than a regular cricket ball. These variations make batting a whole different story.
Usually a youngster in Pakistan starts his cricketting career by playing with tennis ball for the first 10 years are so which itself implants the wrong basics right at the start. And if the basics are not right, everything built on them will not be right.

[Statto]

Better than the youngster not playing at all isnt it? I dont know a lot about how players progress into first class and test cricket but I assume its through some sort of club system where there must be coaches. If its anything like what I believe to be the case in India, only the richer children play club cricket and so progress to tests etc. then tapeball cricket shouldnt be a serious issue as it is more of a game played by the poorer children isnt it? It would seem that there are more problems with coaching if you see the same mistakes being replicated, or maybe just the temperement of players. All this is just guessing though, because as I said Im not well versed in ametuer cricket in Pakistan.

[Karthik]

This concept is already practised in areas of the sub continent i.e. playing tape ball cricket! Infact its more popular then normal cricket because you dont need any padding to protect u however it has been seen that playing too much of tape ball cricket can ruin your normal cricket game. By the way the ball can be moved around with a full taped ball.

[Seamer]

We have a similar thing called "Kanga cricket" using rubber coated tennis balls that 6-10yo girls and boys play at school. The concept is purely fun based with no training or coaching, and used as a tool to get kids interested in cricket.
Beyond 10 years, the kids begin club cricket with pads, proper balls ect and are coached. I agree that letting older kids continue playing "tape ball/kanga cricket" will certainly ruin technique. But if they cannot afford the proper gear then they have to play with something.
What is important is that kids are playing. With all this Indian money going around in cricket, a serious investment in grassroots cricket (building nets, supplying gear) would pay serious dividends in the subcontinent by the looks.

[Aussie-Yank]

Seamer, I am also from Queensland (Brisbane) and growing up I use to use the tapped tennis ball in playing cricket - it was not a case of not having the money for a cricket ball it was a case of not being able to use a cricket ball in the back yard or at school.

But certainly was playing club cricket at the same time and practicing in the nets with pads and a cricket ball.

The thing I liked about the tapped ball is that you where able to get swing from the ball, so it helped quite a bit with the moving ball in batting in club cricket. But its bounce was usually predictable and was alot harder to scare batsman (I am a pace bowler) so you had to use differences in speed and change up the length to get the wickets.

So I think there is a place for it - but it needs to go hand in hand with the real thing.

[ll0OoO0ll]

Originally Posted by Statto

Better than the youngster not playing at all isnt it? I dont know a lot about how players progress into first class and test cricket but I assume its through some sort of club system where there must be coaches. If its anything like what I believe to be the case in India, only the richer children play club cricket and so progress to tests etc. then tapeball cricket shouldnt be a serious issue as it is more of a game played by the poorer children isnt it? It would seem that there are more problems with coaching if you see the same mistakes being replicated, or maybe just the temperement of players. All this is just guessing though, because as I said Im not well versed in ametuer cricket in Pakistan.

To the extent that I played, there is no concept of proper/official coaching untill a player reaches first class cricket and by first class I mean representing Pakistan A or Pakistan national side(or in some cases Pakistan under 19 team). Players just keep playing a lot of cricket, some lucky ones may get an occasional advice from a retired first class cricketer on and off the ground and thats about it. But again, befor a player reaches the luxury of having a coach, he has already played a whole lot of tape ball cricket together with some on and off real cricket.
Most of the admisnistrators of PCB who have turned a blind eye towards tape ball cricket in Pakistan are nothing more than typical low life losers who are placed on their jobs by napotism and they've got nothing better to do than having a cocky attitude to represent their superiority complexed personalities.