How Are Cricket Balls Made?
A cricket ball is made with a center of string and cork strips and an outer covering of leather. The weight and size of a cricket ball is different for men’s cricket and women’s cricket, but both are carefully regulated by cricket organizations around the world. Cricket balls are traditionally colored dark red.
Cricket balls have been made in Kent, England for centuries. However, increased labor costs in Great Britain and increasing demand for the product have made continuing manufacture in England cost-prohibitive. As of 2014, 98 percent of manufactured cricket balls are made in either India or Pakistan.
The balls are made according to international regulations. Cork strips are covered with tightly-wound string. The outer skin of leather is cut into four pieces and sewn together with a protruding seam. The center of the ball has six rows of seaming with three on each side of the seam. This seaming allows the ball to have some spin and also makes it easy to grip.
Different cricket players prefer balls made by different manufacturers, based on how the ball feels and how it spins when hit and thrown. These differences are primarily due to the type of leather and the thickness of the seaming.
