Dukes, Kookaburra, SG: The 3 types of pink balls in cricket

1-0 up against Bangladesh in the Test series, India move on to the second Test -- the first-ever day-night Test match to be played in India -- at the Eden Gardens on November 22nd.

As part of their preparations, India have had multiple training sessions with the pink ball under lights. Each day of the match will start at 1 pm and end at 8 pm with a view to counter the dew factor. Indian captain Virat Kohli has also expressed his excitement to play in the team’s first-ever day-night Test.

The Eden Gardens match will be the 12th day-night Test ever. BCCI President Sourav Ganguly revealed on Tuesday that tickets for four days of the Eden Gardens Test, which has a capacity of over 65,000, have been sold out.

The Kolkata Test will also see the SG pink ball making its debut. Test cricket so far has seen pink ball cricket being played with the Kookaburra and Dukes balls.

Kookaburra, Dukes and SG are the three main manufacturers of cricket balls in international matches. While India uses the SG ball, England, Ireland and the West Indies use Dukes (manufactured in England).

All the other Test-playing nations make use of the Kookaburra ball manufactured in Australia.

Eden Gardens, the venue of India's first-ever Day-Night Test

How are they different?

All the three balls have six rows of stitches around the central seam of the ball. However, while Dukes and SG are hand-stitched in all six rows, Kookaburra only hand-stitches two rows (inner seam); the four outer rows are stitched with machines. That is why the seam of the Kookaburra is said to flatten faster than that of the Dukes and SG balls.

Writing a column in Daily Mail, England pacer Jofra Archer stated, “I’d never bowled with the red Kookaburra before, but I knew it was going to be tough and so it proved. People say it has a smaller seam than the Dukes ball we use in England but I’m not sure it has a seam at all. It isn’t pronounced on any part of the ball. It doesn’t hold its shine either and gets very old, very fast.”

Jofra Archer

England take on New Zealand in the first Test at Mount Maunganui, where Archer will have a big role to play.

Red vs pink ball

The one major difference between the red ball and the pink ball is that a fine layer of extra color and paint is used in the pink ball at the end of the manufacturing process. This is done to brighten the pink, and improve visibility under floodlights.

Also, the seam of the pink ball is stitched with a black thread, while the red ball has white seam. Apart from being hand-stitched, the seam of the SG ball is a bit more pronounced keeping the dew factor in mind as well.

Paras Anand, the marketing director at SG, told ESPNCricinfo that there is extra lacquer on the pink ball for the shiny look, and also to protect the ball from damage and help in swing.

Further, in an interview with Sportstar, Dukes owner Dilip Jajodia explained that the basic construction of the red and pink ball is the same; it is the leather that is treated differently. “We dye through, put pigment on top which is a bright colour and preserve it through the polish,” he said.