Pink ball is a combination of white and red ball: SG Director Paras Anand

India played its first pink ball test against Bangladesh last year at the iconic Eden Gardens, and the SG pink ball was used for the first time in a Test match.

In an exclusive live chat with Indranil Basu on Sportskeeda's Facebook page, Paras Anand, co-owner and Marketing Director of Sanspareils Greenlands, popularly known as SG, discussed the making of the pink ball and how it was a combination of both the red and white balls.

"We've been talking about the white ball and the red ball but now the Pink ball is another dimension. Its a combination , you want the Pink ball to behave like the red ball because it is for the longer format but then the way it is prepared.. especially with the coloring part, and the way leather is prepared, it is very similar to the white ball. So we were required to produce a mix of both balls," said Paras Anand.

SG started manufacturing the pink ball in 2016

Anand mentioned that the entire exercise of producing the pink ball at SG started in 2016 when day-night first-class matches were first held. The director of the Meerut-based company further said that they were confident of producing a ball that could stand the rigours of Test match cricket.

"Before this test match where it was decided by BCCI that they will go ahead with the SG ball, we were also very excited and confident that the work we had done in the last three years. We were confident that we will be able to produce a ball which will play well at the international level and touchwood things went well" the SG director added.

Sourav Ganguly took charge as the BCCI President on October 23 last year, and one of the first decisions he made after assuming the chair was the announcement of the Pink ball Test in Kolkata.

Building on the success of the day-night Test, Ganguly had said that he would like Virat Kohli & Co. to play one pink ball game in every series. India will be playing their second pink-ball Test match later in the year during the tour of Australia.