When the umpires change the cricket ball, is the old ball (replaced ball) thrown as waste or kept for reuse?
Reference at the time of writing this article: MCC’s The Laws of Cricket, 2017 Code (3rd Edition–2022)
This situation is very particular about ‘Umpires changing the ball’, so let us first understand under which circumstances the umpire will change the ball which is in use. The clarity in this regard can help get the answer to this question.
The umpires will change the ball when they consider that:
- The condition of the ball is not fit for play through its normal usage – change of shape, seam damage, ball becoming wet and soggy etc.
- The condition of the ball is not fit for play after it has been tampered with – in some cases the batsmen in the middle will choose the ball, and in some cases, the umpires will choose the replacement ball.
- The ball is lost.
Except for the ball lost case, the balls which have been replaced while they were in use, will not be used at all in any of the future games. They were replaced because they were not fit to be used in the match. The balls which are considered not fit to be used in one game cannot be considered fit to be used in different games. So, in these circumstances, these balls will never again play any role in an actual game.
In case the ball is lost, if the lost ball is never recovered then it is the end of the story. But, if the ball is recovered sometime later, it can still be kept for future use, because it was never replaced in the first place for not being fit to be used. It was replaced because it was not found and the game has to go on with a different ball.
Additional Information-
In test matches, the captain of the fielding side will have the option to choose a new ball during the inning if they have bowled complete 80 overs with it. It is an option that they can exercise but it is not a mandatory requirement to replace. In this case, the ball was replaced as the rules permitted them to replace it, it may not necessarily be due to an issue with the ball. In these circumstances, the replaced balls can be kept for future use.
Some domestic multi-day match formats have replacement guidelines as optional ball replacement stage and mandatory replacement stage, which we will cover in another article.