Dukes to examine 'soft' cricket balls - what is going on?

BBC News

18-07-2025

Balls used in the series between England and India will be examined by the manufacturer after the first three Tests were blighted by problems.The Dukes balls have been regularly changed because they have gone out of shape, causing frustrating delays in play.The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) will collect as many used balls as possible and return them to Dukes by the end of the week."We will take it away, inspect and then start talking to the tanner, talking about all of the raw materials - everything," Dilip Jajodia, owner of British Cricket Balls Ltd, who make the Dukes, told BBC Sport."Everything we do will be reviewed and then if we think some changes need to be made or tightened up, we will."
What has been the problem?
The ball used for Test matches is decided by the host board. Whereas this is the Dukes in England, Tests in India are played with a SG ball, while the Kookaburra is used in Australia.The Dukes, in production since 1760, has long been regarded as a high-quality product but there have been issues in Test and county cricket in recent years.It has been going soft prematurely - long before it should be changed after 80 overs of an innings - and when a ball goes soft taking wickets becomes harder. Bowlers say there is not the same zip off the pitch and fewer edges carry to fielders.The ECB's Professional Game Committee and Cricket Advisory Group analyses data collected in relation to balls across the season. This would include the number of balls changed, along with reports from umpires and captains.Conversations around the quality of balls have been monitored in recent years and there is an awareness of increased instances of balls becoming softer more quickly but the issue came to a head during the third Test between England and India at Lord's. There were five ball changes during England's first innings, while one was switched after only 10.2 overs on the second morning."The cricket ball should be like a fine wicketkeeper - barely noticed," former England bowler Stuart Broad said."We are having to talk about the ball too much because it is such an issue and is being changed virtually every innings. Unacceptable. "It has been like this for five years now. Dukes have a problem. They need to fix it."
What is causing the issue?
The process for making the Dukes remains a traditional one.They are still produced from cork, wound in string, cased in leather and held together by a hand-stitched seam. The cow hides that provide the leather are also dipped in dye, providing further variation.Jajodia says there could be a number of factors at play. "One is the raw materials which are natural and then has to be moulded and put together by a human being," he said."Obviously the major aspect of a cricket ball is the leather that holds the whole thing together, and if the fibres that form the animal skin has got some sort of weakness or inherent problem that's something we can only find if it fails by further inspection and investigation."He added: "Covid did have a very serious effect on all sorts of businesses. "In the whole process of tanning leather I would expect changes in personnel, whether either they passed away or decided that it was all too difficult. "Also it may be some of the chemicals are not available any more because companies are going out of business. It could be the cattle themselves or it could be the processes."There is literally almost one tanner left that does cricket ball leather so there's not a choice. You have to work with the tannery to make sure that they produce what you want and by and large they do."Jajodia also believes the modern game, with bigger bats, more sixes and harder playing surfaces may also be a factor."The unique nature of cricket is that you can't test that ball before it goes into play so therefore, if it fails, it fails in use and at the very highest level it's in the glare of publicity," he said."All we can do to check everything as thoroughly as we can during the whole process of making the ball."
What can be done?
Jajodia has been quoted as saying a new ball should be given to the bowling sides after 65 overs rather than 80 as one possible solution but accepts that may not be popular."At the end of the day, we've had three Test matches, they've all been good games," he said. "They've been interesting games. "We should be very cautious and not be looking for drastic and dramatic changes. "This is a product that's been going since 1760. There is no snap answer, all you can do is to go through the routine of everything that you do and try and identify."There are, of course, alternatives available to the ECB. They do not have a set contract with Dukes and their deal is renewed on an annual basis.A hand-stitched ball made by Gunn & Moore is used in county 2nd XI cricket. One reason for this is to provide an alternative to Dukes should it ever be required.The Kookaburra has been controversially trialled in the County Championship since 2023 and is being used for four rounds of matches this season. This was an innovation led by the England team, to help prepare bowlers for overseas conditions.In the two rounds of Championship cricket already played using the Kookaburra this season, an average of 1,194.66 runs were scored per match - a significant increase.One theory for the ineffectiveness of the Kookaburra in this country is it is not suitable to the softer pitches of the UK, as opposed to harder surfaces of the southern hemisphere."I can assure you we are on the case all of the time," Jajodia said."I spend my life almost producing these balls and I personally pick the balls for each game and when you look at them and they are new they look like works of art, they really are. They're wonderful. "But what you don't know is what it's going to do when it's actually taking hammer and that's the problem with the product."