Types of balls used in Cricket Game | Cricketcriteria

Types of Cricket Balls Based on Colours

• Red colour  Leather cricket balls

• White colour Leather cricket balls

• Pink colour Leather cricket balls

#1 Red Colour Leather cricket balls

                   Red colour leather cricket ballsare normally used in international test matches. Red color leather balls offers better shine and swing to fast bowlers. Red color balls are possible the best balls for cricket matches.

1. Kookaburra

Every limited overs international match uses the Kookaburra leather ball. Kookaburra  is manufactured in Australia and the red one is used Test matches in Australia, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Pakistan. The Red Kookaburra weighs about 156 grams with a 4-piece construction. These balls are mostly machine-made. The Kookaburra ball has a seam effective only till 20-25 overs because after that it becomes old and doesn’t swing. It doesn’t offer much to the spinners as they don’t get a good grip to turn the ball effectively.

2. Dukes

England manufactures Dukes cricket ball. Test matches in England and West Indies use Dukes at home. It is the most bowler friendly ball as it swings till 50 overs. Its seam remains intact for a very long time and hence it favours the seam bowlers even when the ball is rather old. However, this ball doesn’t benefit the spinners as it is used in seam friendly conditions. The Dukes ball ranges from £10-100 (₹850-8500).

3. SG

The only country that uses SG cricket ball in tests is India. This red ball doesn’t retain its shine for a very long time. Hence, it doesn’t favour the seamers as the ball swings only for the first 10 overs. However, the seam of the ball is intact and doesn’t deteriorate.Therefore, it is more spinner friendly as spinners get a good grip to turn the ball effectively. Also, India uses turning wickets which has helped players like Ravichandran Ashwin to be so successful with the red SG ball. But it even is helpful for the fast bowlers in the later half as it helps them to reverse swing effectively. This ball costs around ₹650-2000 in India.

#2 White Colour Leather cricket balls

Kerry Packer, the guy behind the idea of the revolutionary World Series Cricket, introduced white ball for the first time in 1977. World Series Cricket was the first ever cricket league and it also introduced colored jerseys for the first time in cricket.

This was also the first time that a cricket match was played under floodlights. Hence, the red ball wouldn’t have been effective as it would camouflage with the colored jerseys and also wouldn’t be visible in the dark sky.

1992 was the first time that white ball was used in a World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. The white Kookaburra ball swings a lot in the first 20 overs. But in the later half, its seam and shine deteriorates and hence it isn’t effective for the seamers. 

#3 Pink colour Leather cricket balls

Kookaburra also manufactured the first pink ball used in the first ever Day-Night Test match when Australia clashed with New Zealand at Adelaide in 2015. The neon pink ball was manufactured as the normal red ball wasn’t visible in the night sky under floodlights. Also, the white ball would have camouflaged with the white Test jerseys. Hence, pink was picked as it was clearly visible in the dark blue sky at night, under the floodlights. The Kookaburra ball is almost 7 times expensive than the SG ball used in Test matches in India. The original ball used in T20s and ODIs costs around ₹10,000-12,000 in India.