County Cricket to Ditch Kookaburra Ball After Two Seasons of Trial
London – The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has confirmed that the County championship will revert to using the Dukes ball for the entirety of the upcoming season, ending a controversial two-year trial of the Kookaburra ball. The decision follows resistance from counties to broader competition restructuring proposals.
Introduced with the aim of better preparing English players for overseas conditions, the Kookaburra ball - typically used in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa – was first used in two rounds of County Championship matches in 2023, expanding to four rounds in both 2024 and 2025. The ECB hoped the ball would encourage faster bowling and a greater role for spin.
However, recent matches played with the Kookaburra resulted in high-scoring contests, with averages of 430 for the first innings and 59 individual centuries recorded across the Championship. Surrey, such as, declared at 820-9 against durham at The Oval in June.
despite the perceived lack of competitive balance, the ECB’s high-performance arm maintained the trial was accomplished in it’s primary objective. Ed Barney, ECB men’s performance director, stated last month: ”We valued the Kookaburra ball. Has it achieved what we intended to? Yes, 100%.” He added, ”To be most effective with the kookaburra ball you have to bowl at a higher speed. Has it drawn more spin bowling into the domestic game? Yes it has.”
Statistics revealed optimal bowling speeds with the Kookaburra were around 85mph,compared to 75-79mph with the Dukes. Moreover, 40% of deliveries were bowled by spinners during Kookaburra rounds, rising from 25% when the Dukes ball was in use.
Barney highlighted a fundamental conflict: “Ultimately the domestic game has a decision to make of whether it wants its core purpose to be about producing and developing players for international cricket or whether its core purpose is about a product that is competitive and appealing to the domestic context.”
The decision to return to the Dukes ball came after counties rejected proposals for a restructured Championship featuring 12 teams in the top flight and six in the bottom tier, with each team playing 13 matches.The Championship will retain its current format of 10 teams in Division one and eight in Division Two, with all teams playing 14 matches.
