History

History of the Blind Cricket Ball

The cane blind cricket balls were the first balls to be used in Australia from the mid 1920’s through until 1972.

This blind cricket ball was used in the first interstate blind cricket match in 1928. Made of cane wicker it had metal pieces inside that made a noise when thrown.

Then the red nylon blind cricket ball was used from 1972 to 1974 only.

The black nylon blind cricket ball was in use since 1974 until the end of the 2002/2003 season.

The black nylon and cane balls are both hand woven around a wire frame and have lead for weight and bottle tops for sound placed inside.

The white nylon blind cricket ball was made especially for New Zealand in the early 1990’s. This colour ball was found to be unsuitable for our game and therefore, the black ball was preferred in New Zealand as well as Australia.

A hard white plastic ball is currently used in Australia and it is slightly larger and has holes in it so sound can be released from the bottle tops and led weight.

This ball has been in use since the beginning of the 2003/2004 season.

A small white solid plastic blind cricket ball with small metal pieces inside is presently used in India and a majority of the Sub Continent countries and this was the ball used during the first and second World Cups for Blind Cricket played in India during November 1998 & December 2002. The World Blind Cricket Council has investigated the option of adopting a new ball, which has still not been accepted by all participating countries through out the world.