Pink ball leads to 'boring cricket' - Hastings

Australia fast bowler John Hastings is the latest to hedge his bets when it comes to the pink ball. It was in use in Victoria's opening match of the Sheffield Shield season against Queensland at the MCG and Hastings mentioned at the end of the first day's play that the pink ball lost its hardness rather quickly, and also pointed out that it doesn't swing after approximately 15 overs leading to "a boring brand of cricket."

As a workaround, Hastings suggested changing it after 50 overs of use rather than 80 overs as is custom with the red ball. "It's certainly better than the first few pink-ball games that we've played but I think there's a fair bit of work to do," he said. "The main issue for me is the hardness of the ball. It just doesn't stack up to the red ball. Maybe if we change the ball at around 50-55 overs and get a new one or a semi-new one, it might be a better contest towards the end.