India, July 11 -- Dilip Jajodia is in the eye of a storm right now, a storm not necessarily of his making but that has inexorably sucked him in. After all, he is the owner of British Cricket Balls Ltd., who manufacture the Dukes cricket ball which has been the object of much scrutiny, censure and ridicule over the last three weeks.

Jajodia, 81, is an alumnus of Bishop Cotton Boys' School in Bengaluru, a city from where he has just returned to the English capital after exploring the possibility of an arrangement with the Board of Control for Cricket in India so that the Dukes can be used at a representative level in India too. He troops into Lord's on Friday morning nattily dressed like a member of the Marylebone Cricket Club, which he is...