Red, white and pink balls: where the colour rules come from.

The Laws leave colour to the playing conditions

Law 4 of the 2017 Code 4th Edition (2026) sets only weight and circumference, for the three sizes described on the ball. It does not name a colour. The MCC's preface explains that leagues and governing bodies add their own playing regulations on top of the Laws, for example for T20 and Test matches, and ball colour is one of the things they settle.

White balls in one-day internationals

The ICC Men's One-Day International Playing Conditions, effective from October 2026, deal with the ball in clause 4:

• Clause 4.2.1. The home board provides white balls of an approved standard, plus spare used balls of the same brand, and must tell the visiting board the brand at least 30 days before the match.
• Clause 4.2.2. The fielding captain, or a nominee, picks the ball from the home board's supply. The fourth umpire takes a box of at least six new balls to the dressing room and supervises the choice.
• Clause 4.3. Each fielding side has two new balls, used from alternate ends, for overs 1 to 34. At the end of the 34th over it chooses one of the two for the rest of the innings, and the other joins the supply of replacement balls. If a match is cut to 25 overs or fewer per side before it starts, one new ball is used per innings.

The 34-over choice is a recent change. The ICC's 2017 version of the same clause, published on 28 September 2017, gave each side two new balls per innings from alternate ends with no switch to one ball. The ICC announced the change on 27 June 2025, and it applied to men's ODIs from 2 July 2025.

The ICC Women's One-Day International Playing Conditions (effective July 2026) also keep two new balls in alternate overs, with one new ball per innings if the match is cut to 25 overs or fewer per side before the first innings begins. Whether the women's conditions include the 34-over choice is not recorded in our research.

Clothing that keeps a white ball visible

The ICC Clothing and Equipment Regulations (effective January 2024) say that in ODIs and T20 internationals each board chooses its team colours, but shirts, sweaters and trousers must not be white, cream or any light colour likely to make a white ball hard to see, with the ICC's Senior Cricket Operations Manager having the final word. In Tests, playing clothing is white or cream. The same regulations require the bails in ODIs and T20 internationals to be a colour that stands out from the stumps. More is on clothing and equipment rules.

Balls in Test cricket

The ICC Men's Test Match Playing Conditions opened for this site are effective from June 2025. No Test playing conditions effective from October 2026 were found.

• Clause 4.2.1. The home board provides balls of an approved standard for Test cricket, with spare used balls of the same brand, and tells the visiting board the brand at least 30 days ahead. The clause names no colour.
• Clauses 4.3 and 4.4. A new ball is used at the start of each innings, and the fielding captain may take a new ball once 80 or more overs have been bowled with the old one.
• Clause 4.5. A ball that has to be replaced after 110 overs is replaced with a new ball.
• Clause 12.7.12. With the visiting board's agreement and before the Test, a home board may ask the ICC to approve a day/night Test, with six hours of scheduled play a day.
• Sight-screens. For day-night Tests the home board decides whether the sight-screens are white or black.

Saliva on the ball

Clause 41.3 of both the ODI (October 2026) and Test (June 2025) playing conditions says that if the umpires believe saliva has been put on the ball, the bowler's end umpire awards five penalty runs to the batting side and replaces the ball, unless the umpires believe the saliva was applied deliberately to get the ball changed.

How the pink ball reached Test cricket

Cricket Australia announced on 30 June 2015, in a statement from its chief executive James Sutherland, that Adelaide would stage the first day-night Test, Australia against New Zealand, from 27 November to 1 December 2015. The same report said the pink balls had been developed with the Australian Cricketers' Association and the ball maker Kookaburra after two seasons of Sheffield Shield trials.

Earlier, on 10 July 2014, cricket.com.au reported that Kookaburra had supplied a harder pink ball for trial, with a harder inner core, more durable stitching and a green seam in place of a white one. That followed feedback that earlier pink balls went soft after around 20 to 30 overs and that the white seam was hard to see. The article also recorded a Sheffield Shield pink-ball trial in March 2014.

Seam colour: the sources differ

The 2014 cricket.com.au report describes a green seam on the trial pink ball. A Cosmos article, seen only as a search-result summary because the page could not be opened, quotes a Kookaburra manager describing a black seam, and saying the pink ball's lacquer is the same as the red ball's. These may describe different stages of development. No source opened settles it, and the Cosmos quote is unconfirmed.

The 2026 pink-ball trial in Tests: reports differ

Australian Associated Press reported on 2 June 2026 that the ICC Board, meeting in Ahmedabad, had approved a trial of the pink ball in Test matches to make the most of playing time when bad light is expected, with both teams agreeing beforehand. AAP gave no start date and said little about how a switch would work. It added that the trial would not be used in the England and New Zealand series starting that week, and that the ECB had no current plans to use pink balls in home Tests.

Other reports describe it more firmly. A WION report, read only as a search-result summary, said the new playing conditions apply to international series starting on or after 1 October 2026 and that a pink-ball decision, once agreed before a Test, binds for the whole match. Outlook India reported on 1 October 2026 that a pink ball may be used in daytime Tests on a trial basis if both teams agree before the match, and cannot then be switched. The trial is not in the June 2025 Test playing conditions, and the ICC's own announcement was not found, so the start date and the details are unconfirmed.