Gilchrist and his squash ball

Here we go again..

After I finished the post 'bye bye world cup' I was pretty resolute in not writing about the world cup again. But the hot topic of Gilchrist and his squash ball which keeps popping up in a lot of blogs and discussion groups just pushes me into writing some thing on it.

The first time I heard that he's got a squash ball inside his glove to help him with his grip I also asked the same question from myself "Is that........legal??" And I've been debating it with myself and my husband....well, if some extra object does enhance a players performance, it doesn't truly reflect his/her abilities, does it? No doubt Gilchrist is a great cricketer, but in this innings he did seem like 'superman'.

There are a lot of arguments going around, and I beleive the question is to be taken up at ICC's next meeting.

http://different-stroke.blogspot.com/2007/05/sri-lanka-cricket-to-question-legality.html
http://andhracafe.com/index.php?m=show&id=22452
http://wordpress.com/tag/cricket-etcetera/

Anyhow, my question is that if he's allowed to do that, does that mean that any batsmen can stuff in any object of their preference under their gloves to enhance their performance?. Surely there has to be some regulation in this.

If the wicket keepers are not allowed to put on extra padding in their gloves, and bowlers can't wear bandages when bowling, and definetely fielders can't wear gloves (even inner ones) to improve their grip on the ball..........how come that batsmen can?