Cricket ball leather comes from cowhide, a durable and malleable covering for one of the sport’s most important accessories. The cricket ball has had an interesting history throughout sports development, with several variations to its design occurring over time. However, cricket ball leather largely retains its source from cow skin across major production centres.
Let’s explore the leather used in cricket balls and common challenges faced to source the material towards meeting huge demand.
How is Cowhide Used for Cricket Ball Leather?
Cowhide goes through an extensive cleaning process during manufacturing. The process aims to remove all hairs from the hide while retaining enough moisture to prevent excessive hardening. A stretching and tanning process sees the hide take its form as a durable, long-lasting cover for professional cricket balls.
What Does Cowhide Provide to Cricket Balls?
Producers, quality control analysts, and even players have come out to identify the superiority of cowhide for making cricket balls. Cowhide is the gold standard for creating cricket ball leather since it is:
- easier to stretch,
- supports better tanning,
- more durable, and
- benefits cricket players than other leather
Are There Alternatives to Cowhide?
Advocates against the use of cowhide suggest several alternatives to this premium cricket ball leather. Buffalo skin is one of the most popular options suggested by anti-cowhide campaigners. However, research and manufacturing processes have revealed cowhide as superior to buffalo skin.
Buffalo skin does not possess properties to support sustained tanning, stretching, and durability like cowhide. Bowlers also prefer cricket balls made to buffalo skin.
Does Cricket Ball Leather Cause Any Disadvantage to Livestock?
Yes, there are several issues caused by cricket ball leather making from cowhide. Some of these disadvantages include:
Indiscriminate slaughtering for skin
Demand for cricket balls continue to grow worldwide, forcing manufacturers to accelerate production and distribution of cowhide. The stressed supply chains prompt cow herders to slaughter livestock just for their skins. Millions of cows must die each year to support making of cricket balls and other industries that require leather.
Pollution
Tanneries use chemicals to clean, prepare, and dye cowskins before processing into cricket balls and other products. Chemicals used throughout the production process mostly end up in surrounding water supply channels. Tanneries for cowhide usually take their sites along water bodies, polluting the ecosystem wherever they are set up.
Selective slaughtering
Makers of cowhide usually prefer skins from male cows over females for production. Cowhide from male cows tend to possess every property required for a high-quality cricket ball. Repeated calls for the practice to end continue to ring out. However, there is no indication that selective cattle slaughtering for leather or other purposes will end soon.
Is It Hard to Source Leather for Cricket Balls?
Sourcing leather for cricket balls is not hard in places like England or Australia where citizens don’t have a high intolerance for hide making. However, it’s a different story in India.
India is one of cricket’s top nations right now. There is huge demand for cricket balls across India, but religious affinity for bovines is a huge disadvantage against manufacturers.
Cow vigilantism
Reports of cow vigilantes attacking tanneries and cowhide stores are common across production areas, effectively scaring businesses from supplying leather.
Rachit Sareen (an executive of Stanford Cricket) had this to say about the problem:
“We would place our requirement before contractors and the trucks just came to our door. But the fear of being charged with cow slaughter is such among transporters that they would rather give it a skip,”
Rising prices
Cow vigilantism may receive wide support from India’s Hindu population, but it has not done much to reduce leather prices. Several cowhide makers and suppliers in the production chain now fear for their safety. The demand for cricket balls continues to grow, but with some makers closing down, prices of this accessory continue to rise.
Rakesh Mahajan, an executive in a sports manufacturing firm had this to say about the issue:
“We used to get cow hide from states like Kerala, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim where cow slaughter is legal. But now, due to political fringe elements and even the Dadri incident where a Muslim man was lynched as he was suspected to have eaten beef, there is a great fear psychosis. People think twice before agreeing to transport cow hide to Meerut and other parts of UP (Uttar Pradesh). It is hitting business hard.”
The sustained demand for cricket balls has seen its regular prices double in recent years. Cricket balls once sold for between $2 and $8, but are now only available from about $4 to $10 based on several factors.
