An Exploration of The Cricket Ball's Evolution: Understanding Its Impact On A Beloved Sport

Cricket is a gentleman’s sport that has grown from humble beginnings to a powerhouse event that will be showcased again on the world’s biggest sporting stage, the Olympics, in Los Angeles in 2028. Enjoying watching the cricket and smashing a wicket has become a favourite pastime for young and old from New Zealand to England, and everywhere in between, with cricket fans uniting for the World Cup every four years. Throughout the game, everyone’s eyes are on the beautiful ball, trimmed with heavy-duty stitching and, when rubbed, a gleaming shine - which is why we’ve chosen to delve into the ball’s history.

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The First Cricket Balls

The very first cricket balls were born alongside the sport itself - which should surprise absolutely no one. The game of cricket as we know it today came to be around the late 1500s. In these times, the game was called ‘creckett’, a rudimentary form of the game played by children around the Weald region of England, and then played by adults by the turn of the century. In these times, the ball was rolled by the bowler along the ground, rather than pitched, similar to how we do now. The new pitching style, with a bounce, came about around 1760. Cricket balls were about to become far more engineered to encourage a more honed style of play.

Some of the first recorded manufacturers of cricket balls are from Penshurst, England, starting in the late 1700s, by the Duke family. One of the Duke family themselves, Timothy Duke, was a famous player for Leigh, nearby Penshurst, Kent, and even England in the 1800s. The Duke balls are meticulously crafted by winding thread over the inner cork core of the ball, a cubed slice of bouncy wood, followed by stretching two halves of leather over the now-round ball, and then pushing both halves together to stitch the famous six cricket-ball lines of stitching in.

Dukes cricket balls still exist today, proudly displaying the banner, “Established 1760”. The company produces balls, alongside bats, gloves, pads, bags, clothes, and other various cricketing accessories and gear. Their hand-stitched balls are seen in some of the world’s top matches, although lately they have been experimenting with and testing machine-stitched balls, to keep up with the times. The Dukes balls feature their iconic golf-leaf stamp on the outside.

Different Cricket Balls and Colourings

There are different types of cricket balls now that are distinguished by their colours: alongside the traditional deep red, we now have the white ball, and a bright pink ball. Australia’s Kookaburra balls mimic the Duke deep red balls, although, as famous cricketer Brett Lee says, their quality seems to have deteriorated slightly over the last few years. India’s deep red SG balls get a bit more scratched than their Australian and English counterparts, which can be better for bowling in Indian conditions.

The white balls are painted white, as opposed to the dyed leather of the deep red balls, which leads to a slightly different style of play. The bright pink balls are known to leap around corners and are used most in the day-to-night transition time period for better viewing for the audience, so everyone can keep their eyes on the ball at all times. This makes them a feature in day-night test matches for better visibility, with these particular balls only debuting on the world stage in 2015. The pink colour was chosen after trialling orange and yellow balls as well, with pink faring better in real-world conditions.

The Future of Cricket Balls

While it’s obvious that we will always have a soft spot for the traditional, hand-stitched deep red cricket ball, in the future we may see balls progress to more new colours or stitching, different materials for the base, different sheens, or different methods of manufacturing. While sports are a mainstay of culture, each particular sport evolves a little bit over the years to become a bigger and better spectacle, requiring the utmost skill of its player s and coaches, and with the best equipment that humanity can dream up. Here, in the world of cricket, the ball will continue to evolve.