New Australian ball standard to create greater choice for community cricket

The Standard will govern the quality and performance of cricket balls used in Australian Premier Cricket, Senior Community Turf and Senior Community Synthetic competitions with criteria and equipment to be developed to test cricket balls in other levels of competition in the future.

Testing commenced on Monday 18 March with balls from five manufacturers and the first balls to conform with the new Standard will be announced by mid-June.

From late April all information about compliant cricket balls will be made available at: www.australiancricketballstandard.com.au.

Watch the video of Associate Professor Glen Lichtwark, Dr Michael Heitzmann and Kieran McMillan discussing the new Australian Cricket Ball Standard.

Kieran McMillan, Acting Executive General Manager of Community Cricket at Cricket Australia said:

“We are always looking at ways to improve the quality of cricket experiences at community level and ensure our sport is accessible and affordable for everyone.

“We’ve been delighted with the involvement of manufacturers, clubs and associations to collaborate on developing a consistent set of performance criteria for cricket balls in Australia.

“The Australian Cricket Ball Standard will be shared with all clubs and associations across the country and give them confidence to purchase balls which have gone through rigorous testing and meet the agreed expectations of the relevant grade of cricket.

“For what is one of the largest expenses at club level – and in turn impacts the cost to play for participants – we believe the Standard will give the community greater choice and drive more competitive pricing.

“In time, we expect the Standard will encourage increased innovation and deliver further positive outcomes for grassroots cricket.”

Associate Professor Glen Lichtwark, from the University of Queensland’s Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences said:

“Cricket is such an intrinsic element of our nation’s sporting landscape, so to develop a Standard that will provide greater options and choice for cricketers in Australia is something we are proud to be part of.

“In a controlled testing environment in Brisbane, each ball will undergo testing on ball mass, centre of gravity, circumference and sphericity, colour, coefficient of restitution and stiffness, wear and visual grading.

“Each model that undergoes testing and passes will be deemed as compliant for a period of three years and balls will be re-tested on a rolling schedule over the course of the next three-year window.”