Dukes and Kookaburra (along with SG) are the most common brands of cricket ball used in professional games. They are manufactured in slightly different ways, which create physical differences that can affect the game.
The three brands are all used in Test matches and other multi-day “red ball” games: SG in India; Dukes in England, Ireland and the West Indies; and Kookaburra in other countries. (Note that this distinction only applies to red balls. International one day and T20 matches usually use a white Kookaburra ball regardless of the location.)
The key difference is the stitching of the seam (which joins the two halves of the leather casing): Dukes balls are hand-stitched and the seam sticks out more, while Kookaburra balls are partly machine stitched with a less prominent seam. SG balls are hand stitched but with a different thread to the Dukes balls. There’s also some variation in the way the leather is dyed red.
These differences can produce variations in the way the ball “behaves” at the start and throughout a game. As a very rough rule, a Dukes ball will begin swinging earlier in use and hold its shape for longer, while a Kookaburra ball will go soft earlier. An SG ball will be more likely to deteriorate in a game and allow for reverse swing, while the different thread in the seam make it easier for spinners to hold and manipulate.
In theory these difference make them particularly suitable to local pitch conditions: Dukes balls work well with the much-debated “swing conditions” of British weather and humidity; Kookaburra balls can cope better with the firm pitches in Australia (where conditions allow for bounce that favours fast bowling) and the SG ball works well with dusty and cracked pitches.
England’s County Championship has traditionally used the Dukes ball but experimented with the Kookaburra, the idea being to help English batters become better prepared for overseas test matches that use the ball. For example, in 2025, the Kookaburra was used for four “rounds” of matches across the seasons. The experiment produced a lot of debate, with match statistics suggesting it was very favourable to batters. Critics argued it make the game less balanced between bowlers and batters and that in the first class format, making it harder to get wickets makes it much more likely games will end in draws. However, supporters of the experiment said significant variations in weather during the season made it hard to fairly isolate the effects of the different ball. The experiment has now been dropped and Dukes balls will be used for all games.