Coronis
International Coach
So, just a topic I’m curious about. I’ve tried to do some research on cricket balls used throughout international cricket but info seems quite sparse. Perhaps it hasn’t really been kept track of, or I’m just bad at researching. If anyone can offer some more insight that would be awesome.
Dukes - producer of most balls pre WWII, have seen “Wisden Special Crowns” mentioned in a solitary article of a ball used in Australia around that time pre Kookaburra. Still used in matches in the UK and the West Indies - since 2011, before that they were using Kookaburra.
Kookaburra - In the late 1940’s apparently won the contract for Australian games. Have been steadily taking over international cricket since (unsure of any specifics for particular countries).
SG - First used in a test in 1991 and exclusively used in Indian tests from 1994.
In ODIs - The first 4 World Cups used the red Dukes ball. The white Kookaburra was used for the next two and the white Dukes was used in 99 (from the article I read, that WC had the highest amount of wides per match for a WC at ~20 per match, with the next highest being 13. Published before the 2019 WC). Since then the Kookaburra has ruled the shorter formats.
Domestically trends follow this - some occasional changes are made such as Australia having half the Sheffield Shield matches from 2016-17 til 2018-19 use the Dukes ball. Apparently to help prepare for the Ashes. (I wonder how much Shield Smith played in those years…)
So if anyone has anything further to add in regards to cricket ball history I’d love to hear it. Also throwing up a poll for funsies.
Dukes - producer of most balls pre WWII, have seen “Wisden Special Crowns” mentioned in a solitary article of a ball used in Australia around that time pre Kookaburra. Still used in matches in the UK and the West Indies - since 2011, before that they were using Kookaburra.
Kookaburra - In the late 1940’s apparently won the contract for Australian games. Have been steadily taking over international cricket since (unsure of any specifics for particular countries).
SG - First used in a test in 1991 and exclusively used in Indian tests from 1994.
In ODIs - The first 4 World Cups used the red Dukes ball. The white Kookaburra was used for the next two and the white Dukes was used in 99 (from the article I read, that WC had the highest amount of wides per match for a WC at ~20 per match, with the next highest being 13. Published before the 2019 WC). Since then the Kookaburra has ruled the shorter formats.
Domestically trends follow this - some occasional changes are made such as Australia having half the Sheffield Shield matches from 2016-17 til 2018-19 use the Dukes ball. Apparently to help prepare for the Ashes. (I wonder how much Shield Smith played in those years…)
So if anyone has anything further to add in regards to cricket ball history I’d love to hear it. Also throwing up a poll for funsies.
