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The Dukes ball
- Thread starter bumble2
- Start date
English cricket balls are going out of shape – are cows and Covid to blame?
Dukes, who make the balls, acknowledge there is a problem with this year's batch but are unsure what has caused itIt is the great mystery of the 2022 English cricket season: just what is wrong with the famed Dukes ball?
Bowlers in the County Championship have reported balls being softer than usual and going out of shape quickly in innings. One game, between Durham and Glamorgan, saw the ball changed seven times.
It has perplexed Dukes, the ball manufacturers, and the England & Wales Cricket Board, with senior officials saying in a meeting recently at Lord’s that the problem could even have been caused by a herd of cows that was poorly fed, and thus producing bad quality leather.
Dilip Jajodia, who owns British Cricket Balls Ltd that manufacturers the Dukes, says he has no idea why the balls in early summer behaved differently but is hopeful a new batch sent to Lord’s for next week’s first Test against New Zealand will please James Anderson and Stuart Broad, who have taken 743 wickets using the Dukes.
"I am acknowledging there is a problem," Jajodia told Telegraph Sport. "That is what the customer says. We are looking at everything we are doing, buckling down and double-checking.
"There are so many moving parts. You would be astonished to see what goes into making a cricket ball. You start with the leather, you have the cork, latex rubbers, thread and then putting it all together takes a number of skilled workers of a different type.
"It is a minimum of nine months from cow to ball so it takes a long time for an issue to become apparent. We do the same thing year in and year out for school cricket balls to Test match cricket balls.
"We have our procedures and we follow them religiously. We are very pleased with our reputation but this year after many years we have got this problem and I still don’t know what it is."
Jajodia sources his cows from England and Scotland, and only uses the hide from the back of the animal. The leather is tanned in this country and then balls are hand stitched in the subcontinent before being finished off with grease and quality checked at the company’s warehouse in Walthamstow, East London.
Jajodia says he can make around 15-20 balls per cow and with the long processing time there could have been an issue during the Covid pandemic.
"The tanning process is not easy to do. Perhaps the guy was sick with Covid and some other temporary worker has come into the job. All that sort of thing can affect it. It is what these cows eat that makes the leather right.
"It has to be from northern Europe. Can’t have southern Europe or from further down into Asia. The leather is not good enough. It is down to the grass they eat and the environment. It is like a good steak. It is all quite romantic when you think about it.
"We only buy the back. The bottom end of the hide is where the cow has been pregnant and it is all stretched so we only buy the back.
"From the back bone on either side of the bone is the best leather we use for first class cricket. You are lucky if you get 12-15 balls per back for first class cricket.”
Jajodia sells around 4,000 to 5,000 balls to the professional game in England and it is their stronger seam that makes them a favourite for Broad and Anderson.
The Kookaburra ball used in Australia is machine-made and softens much quicker. The Dukes is hand-stitched and an organic product, so each has its own characteristics.
Anderson believes that from one year to the next the balls can subtly change in the way they behave. He sent back the 2019 batch, demanding the 2018 lot instead because he thought the seam was stronger. In county cricket this so far this year bowlers have complained they are softening quicker. Perhaps it is down to modern bats.
"The cricket ball standard has not changed but the bats are now so much more powerful today. There are so many more sixes being hit and the balls are flying out the ground," said Jajodia.
"Even in club cricketers are whacking the ball great distances so perhaps we have to sit down and think about what we can do to amend the specification to make the ball tougher. The danger is if we make it harder we will get broken bats and broken fingers. You have to be careful."
I thought it was an ECB initiative but "" it takes about 9 months from hide to ball" so any changes couldn't have happened in the short time frame from Ashes tour to beginning of this season. The ball manufacturers are admitting responsibility but, as yet, can't offer an explanation.
smoker
Striker
TBF FTECB (sorry Carty) have been chirping on about this for a few years now.
Whatever the truthful cause it explains why seamers everywhere have struggled to get wickets this year.
Dukes are an independent company mate, it’s not bollocjs
Twisted
Striker
Assuming ftecb decided this after the ashes.
There's no way in hell I believe the balls are suddenly designed with a less prominent seam and suddenly they're coming out of shape and that's a coincidence
Tbf I don't really care if they want it to behave more like a kookaburra, I just want a ball that stays ball shaped
