England’s premium and world’s oldest First-Class cricket tournament, the County Championship, is facing a unique problem: it has a shortage of balls. And the best part, the problem is not that the balls are not being manufactured, but they are not being able to reach England because of the US and Israel’s war on Iran.
Why are ECB and County cricket facing the problem of balls?
The County Championship will get underway on April 3, but the number of Dukes balls available for the organisers has been halved this season. The Championship will begin with roughly half the usual number of balls available to the counties, Daily mail said in a report.
Usually, each county will have about 4000-5000 balls available to them along with the match balls that are reserved with the ECB. But this season, they will have only half the number of balls as the price of carrying the balls, hand stitched in the Indian subcontinent to England has tripled because of the war in the middle-east as there are several no fly zones in operation.
Dilip Jajodia explains the issue
Dilip Jajodia, the owner of British Cricket Balls Ltd, which manufactures Dukes balls talked about the issue at hand and how the freight rates have risen from $5 to $15 per kilogram in light of the conflict.
“We’ve got plenty of stuff in the factories in the subcontinent ready to go, but the airlines are not taking the freight, because there’s a logjam,” Jajodia explained.
What are the ECB saying about the shortage of balls?
Though they have tried to shift the focus, the ECB are aware of the shortage of balls. “The Professional County Clubs have received the number of Dukes balls that they normally would ahead of the season,” ESPNcricinfo quoted an ECB spokesperson as saying.
But not delving into the details was a clear indication of the fact that they don’t want to air the issue even more.
Why are Dukes manufactured in the Indian subcontinent?
The manufacturing process is deceptively complex. The leather starts as British cowhide, tanned and treated in Chesterfield, before being shipped to South Asia, where craftsmen hand-stitch each ball with precision.
The Kookaburra connection: How ECB shot itself in the foot
The situation might not have been this bad, if the three-year trial period of using the Kookaburras was on for this year too in the County Championship. But just ahead of the 2026 County Championship, the ECB decided to end the trial period, so those balls are not part of the process anymore.
Thus, for now, England cricket and Jajodia are truly bearing the cost of the war in the gulf. How long they will have to, cannot be predicted as of now.