hmmm it seems to me there is just so much you can do with a ball.
I have no idea about cricket other then I was humiliated as a child and later as a teen being made to play it against my will. my memory of it is that the ball hurts when it hits you and that hitting with the bat is harder then it looks. But then I never used those things on the ball. Does it help? :P
....but soon becomes ruffed-up after being belted around the field a few times. However, the bowler wants the ball to have one side shiny and the other dull and scruffy. The reason for this is that the bowler achieves 'swing' when the ball moves at speed through the air. This is to confuse the batsman because if the ball was to come perfectly straight at him it would be reasonably easy to hit the ball ( heh.. for a good batsman).
For example - if the ball was supremely shiny on one side and really cut up and rough on the other the ball would veer or curve a great deal through the air. And if the batsmen has only a half second to 'read' the ball ......?
OK now you make the ball shiny - only on one side -by rubbing it on your pants between deliveries - the only way allowed in the rules. The crisis that this cartoon refers to is that somehow the shiny side was fine but the other was too ruffed up and looked like someone ( usually the bowler ) had been scraping at it with something ( say a bottle cap ) - definitely not allowed in the rules! And that some artificial means was used to shine the ball. I remember that Dennis Lillee was *accused* of this at one time - he allegedly put vaseline on his brow before the match and would casually wipe it off with his finger and then onto the ball. Of course it was all denied at the time.
An expert might enlighten us on that one...?
I feel like letting off a little steam through this blog as we roll on the next election. I want to jot down a few of my thoughts on the world here and even add a little drawing or two to make it more visual than just text.
