Kookaburra denies gagging Starc over pink ball comments

The makers of the controverial pink ball say they haven't gagged Aussie speedster Mitchell Starc ahead of today's historic day-night test against the Black Caps in Adelaide.

Kookaburra is a personal sponsor of Starc who was staunch in his criticism of the pink ball earlier this year but has been strangely silent on it this week - aided and abetted by Aussie team officials who have been at pains to keep him away from media in the build-up.

Australian media outlets claimed the ball manufacturer was far from thrilled at Starc's criticism back in June. Since then he has not spoken about it again.

Shane Warne has been another to lash Kookaburra of late - and the company says it's taking the former Test great's calls for Cricket Australia to replace its products with Dukes balls "with a pinch of salt."

Today's day-night Test is a landmark event for Kookaburra, which is confident in the years of hard work it's put into the pink ball.

Most Australian players agree the ball has improved, but Starc's lack of comment has been conspicuous.

When the inaugural day-night Test was announced earlier this year, Starc said he was yet to be "convinced" by the pink ball, and was disappointed in the inconsistency of its swing and the fact he felt it was nothing like the traditional red ball.

Since then the superstar quick has blitzed South Australia with the pink but declined to comment afterwards on whether his attitude had changed. He hasn't spoken about the matter at any point this summer.

His relationship with Kookaburra makes it a complex issue.

Kookaburra sponsors a number of Australian cricketers, but group general manager Brett Elliot denies any of them, including Starc, had been gagged from expressing negative views about the balls.

"No they're all free to say what they like, we wouldn't temper them," said Elliot. "I don't think we'd be able to even if we wanted to. Players will always speak their mind and that's important to us.

"Players naturally have a degree of concern about something they're not entirely sure of and I'm sure there was an element of nervousness from Mitch's perspective.

"However, he had probably the best performance recently in a Shield match in Adelaide and was frightening with the pink ball so I think he's probably feeling a bit better about it now.

"The players have different personalities and characteristics and some like to speak out very openly about how they're feeling at the time and I welcome that.

"We wouldn't have been able to get the ball to where it's got to today without the feedback from the players, that's been critical.

"Speaking out keeps us on our toes to make sure we do the best job we can."

Elliot admits communication between Kookaburra and Starc about the progression of the ball perhaps wasn't as clear as it could have been due to the fact the 25-year-old is almost constantly away with the international team.

"They are busy people and they are constantly on a plane in a different part of the world," he said.

"We tend to deal with their agents more than them directly these days."

Warne's criticism came after the farcical situation in Perth where the ball had to be replaced on a dozen occasions due to premature wear and tear.

Elliot said Kookaburra was investigating what went wrong in Perth and said Warne must have a short memory.

"It's a natural product made from entirely natural materials. There's always a risk something can go wrong," he said. "We need to find out what that was and we're working with Cricket Australia quite openly and collectively to do that.

"I think Shane Warne took probably 90 per cent of his wickets with a Kookaburra ball and he never complained about it then, so I would take some of these comments with a pinch of salt."