Types of cricket balls: which to buy for turf, concrete or nets

Types of cricket balls, in one minute

There are three types of cricket balls a buyer in India will meet. Leather balls are for turf and matting pitches. Tennis balls are for concrete, tar and rooftop games. Synthetic balls are for nets, wet days and bowling machines.

The ground decides the ball. A leather ball on concrete loses its seam in an evening. A tennis ball on turf dies in the grass and never carries to the keeper. Pick the surface first, then the ball, then the grade within that ball.

MRP follows the same order. A tennis ball costs less than a synthetic one, and a synthetic one costs less than leather. Within leather, the gap between a practice ball and a match ball is wide. Most of that gap is paid for the core and the stitching.

Leather balls: turf and matting pitches

For a club or academy playing on turf or matting, buy a four-piece alum-tanned leather ball at 156 g. Nothing else behaves like a match ball in the air or off the pitch, so nothing else trains a batter or a bowler for a match.

The 156 g figure is the men's standard. The rulebook allows 155.9 g to 163 g, with a circumference of 22.4 cm to 22.9 cm. Most makers aim at the low end of the weight band, because a lighter ball within the rules keeps its shape a little longer.

The cover is where the MRP goes. Alum-tanned leather is tanned with aluminium salts, which keeps the hide pale and firm. It takes dye evenly and holds a shine. Chrome-tanned leather is softer and cheaper. It scuffs sooner and goes out of shape sooner. A good match ball is alum-tanned. A practice ball may be chrome-tanned, and that is fine for nets.

Under the cover sits a cork core wound in wool, or a cork and rubber composite. The wound core is the match standard. The composite core costs less and lasts well enough for practice.

Expect an MRP of ₹1,500 to ₹3,000 for a four-piece alum-tanned match ball. Expect ₹600 to ₹1,200 for a four-piece club ball with a chrome-tanned cover. Expect ₹250 to ₹500 for a two-piece practice ball.

Two-piece or four-piece

Buy four-piece for any game that counts and two-piece for nets.

A four-piece ball has two halves, each made of two quarters stitched together. The halves are then joined by the raised seam. Six rows of stitching hold it, usually around 78 to 82 stitches per ball. The internal seams give the ball a stiffer shape, so it swings more and keeps its shape longer.

A two-piece ball has one seam. It is quicker to make, so it costs less. It swings less and goes soft sooner. For a bowler working on line and length for an hour, that does not matter. For a match, it does.

A club that plays twenty games a season and holds three nets a week should budget for both. The match balls stay in the kit bag until match day. The two-piece balls take the beating.

Tennis balls: concrete, tar and rooftops

For gully, society and rooftop cricket, buy a heavy tennis ball, not a lawn-tennis ball.

A tennis ball made for cricket has a thicker rubber core and a tighter felt. It weighs around 90 g to 110 g, against about 58 g for a lawn-tennis ball. The extra weight lets it carry off a short run-up and stops it ballooning in wind. The felt also lasts longer on tar.

Light tennis balls still have a place. For children under ten, or for an indoor hall with glass, the light ball is safer and kinder on a bat that was never meant for it.

Colour is a practical choice. Green felt is the common one. Yellow or orange shows up better under street lights and on a grey concrete evening.

Tennis balls are sold singly or by the half dozen. A heavy cricket tennis ball has an MRP of ₹60 to ₹150. A pack of six runs ₹400 to ₹800. Buy the pack. A ball lost over a wall is the normal way a tennis ball ends.

Synthetic balls: nets, wet days and bowling machines

For a bowling machine, a wet monsoon ground or a batter who wants to practise in the rain, buy a moulded synthetic ball at the full 156 g weight with a moulded seam.

A synthetic ball has a PVC or polyurethane shell over a cork or rubber core. The seam is moulded, not stitched, so there is no thread to swell with water and no leather to soak. It comes back out of a puddle at the same weight it went in.

Bowling machines take a dimpled synthetic ball in a set size, usually 60 mm to 65 mm across. The dimples give the wheels grip. Check the machine's manual before buying a box. A leather ball through a machine wears the wheels and the ball at the same time.

For juniors starting against a hard ball, a soft synthetic at 120 g to 135 g bridges the gap from tennis ball to leather. It bounces like leather, but it hurts less when it finds a shin.

An MRP of ₹150 to ₹450 covers most synthetic balls. The machine-specific dimpled ones sit toward the top of that range.

Weights by age

Buy junior weight for under-13 and full weight from under-15 upward.

The junior leather ball weighs 133 g to 144 g, with a circumference of 20.5 cm to 22 cm. It is sized for a smaller hand and a slower arm. A child bowling a full 156 g ball before the wrist is ready learns to push rather than bowl.

Women's and girls' cricket uses 140 g to 151 g, a middle band. Many academies run girls' nets on this weight from under-15 upward.

Read the weight on the box, not the size name. Youth and junior mean different things from maker to maker. The gram figure is the one that matters.

How many to order

For a club season, order a dozen four-piece match balls and two dozen two-piece practice balls. For an academy with thirty students and three nets a week, order four dozen practice balls and a dozen synthetic balls for machine work and wet days.

A match ball on turf gives one innings of fifty overs at full quality and a second life in practice. A two-piece practice ball gives about six net sessions on matting before the seam flattens. Tennis balls are consumables. Count on losing one a week per playing group.

Ordering in dozens brings the per-ball figure closer to the lower end of each MRP range, and the box protects the balls from damp in transit. Delivery by COD or prepaid works the same way for a dozen as for a hundred. Check the SaleOnSports range before placing a club order, so the whole season's balls arrive in one parcel.

Care that stretches the MRP

Dry a leather ball, polish it and store it flat in the box.

After a match on damp grass, wipe the ball and leave it in the open air, out of the sun, overnight. Do not put it near a heater. Heat dries the leather fast and the cover cracks along the seam. Once dry, a thin coat of a neutral leather dressing or plain petroleum jelly keeps the hide supple. Rub it in with a soft cloth, then buff until the shine returns.

Keep match balls in a cool cupboard, not in a kit bag in a car boot. A ball stored at 40 °C for a summer loses the firmness that the alum tanning paid for.

Synthetic balls need nothing more than a wash in plain water. Tennis balls cannot be saved once the felt is gone. Move them to catching practice and buy a new pack.