The cricket ball: what Law 4 says, and what changed in 2026.

The three sizes in Law 4.1 (2026 edition)

Law 4.1 of the 2017 Code 4th Edition (2026) sets a weight range and a circumference range for each of three balls, measured when the ball is new. The Law says nothing about colour, which is left to playing conditions.

Which size is used in a match is not fixed by the Laws. Under Law 4.6 (2026 edition) the governing body responsible for the match decides, and if it has not done so the umpires decide under Law 2.3.1.1. The bat and ball checker compares a weight and circumference with these three ranges.

What the 2022 edition said

Under the 2017 Code 3rd Edition (2022), in force from 1 October 2022 until the 2026 edition replaced it, the balls were named for who used them, and the two smaller balls sat in Law 4.6 rather than Law 4.1:

Three points follow from comparing the two editions:

• Size 1 is the old men's ball. The MCC says it is unchanged. The 2022 text gave the minimum as 155.9 g and the 2026 text rounds it to 156 g; both equal 5.5 oz.
• Size 2 is not simply the old women's ball renamed. The old women's range was 140 to 151 g; Size 2 is 142 to 149 g, with a narrower circumference range too.
• Size 3 is narrower than the old under-13 ball. The old junior maximum was 144 g; the Size 3 maximum is 140 g.

Why the MCC changed it

The MCC says the smaller balls used to allow a much wider spread of size and weight than the men's ball, even though they were smaller, so that a small women's ball could end up smaller and lighter than a large junior ball. The 2026 edition gives all three sizes the same, uniform margin. The MCC says the change began with an initiative by current and former women's players at its World Cricket Connects meeting.

A press report that gave the old figure

One report on the 2026 changes, from Arab News and read only as a search-result summary, gave the Size 3 range as 133 to 144 g. That is the old under-13 range from the 2022 edition. The MCC's own 2026 text gives 140 g as the Size 3 maximum, and that is the figure this site uses.

Who controls the ball during a match

The rest of Law 4 (2026 edition) is about control and replacement rather than size:

• Law 4.2. The umpires choose every ball to be used, hold them before the toss and keep them under their control for the whole match. The umpire takes the ball in use at the fall of each wicket, at each interval and at any interruption.
• Law 4.3. Unless the sides agreed otherwise before the match, either captain may ask for a new ball at the start of each innings.
• Law 4.4. In a match scheduled for more than one day, the fielding captain may ask for a new ball once 80 or more complete overs have been bowled with the old one. The MCC says it added the word "scheduled" in 2026 so that a new ball can still be taken if a multi-day match is cut to one day.
• Law 4.5. A ball that is lost, or that the umpires agree has become unfit through normal use, is replaced with one that has had comparable wear.

The 2026 edition also adds Law 41.17.6: whether or not penalty runs are awarded, if either umpire judges an item of equipment to be unfair or illegal, the umpires must act. The MCC says the aim is to stop a player or team repeatedly using illegal equipment, by preventing further use where possible and reporting it in every case.

The ball in international cricket

The ICC Men's One-Day International Playing Conditions (effective October 2026), clause 4.1, repeat the Law's figures for the full-size ball: 156 g to 163 g and 22.4 cm to 22.9 cm. A press report of the ICC's playing conditions for series from 1 October 2026 (Outlook India, 1 October 2026) says the ICC adopted the Size 2 specification of 142 to 149 g and 21.5 to 22 cm; the ICC's own document for that change was not opened, so this comes from the press.

Neither the ICC ODI conditions nor the ICC Men's Test Match Playing Conditions (effective June 2025) name a ball brand. Both say only that the home board provides balls of an approved standard and tells the visiting board the brand at least 30 days before the match. How colour is set, and the rules on new balls in Tests and ODIs, are on red, white and pink balls.

Ball makers: what the sources say

No governing-body document opened for this site says which country uses which brand. The sources found are secondary or opinion:

• Wikipedia says the Dukes ball is used in England, the West Indies and Ireland, the SG in India, and the Kookaburra by the other Test nations.
• In an ESPN blog of 7 February 2009, the former India Test batter Aakash Chopra gave his view that the SG Test ball is used in India's Tests, Dukes and Readers balls in England's red-ball cricket, and the Kookaburra in most white-ball cricket and in Tests outside India and England. He also described the SG's seam as staying prominent for most of an innings while the Kookaburra's seam beds in quickly. That is one player's opinion, not a test result.

The sources also disagree on how the Kookaburra is stitched. Wikipedia says only its inner two seams hold the halves together, with the outer seams machine-made for grip. A Substack comparison, read only as a search-result summary, says the ball is mainly machine-stitched with the two outer seams hand-stitched. Neither is a primary source, and no maker's specification was opened, so this is unresolved.