Reviving the craft of cricket ball making in the UK

As Co-Chair of Heritage Crafts, the UK charity set up to support traditional crafts skills, Jay Blades MBE is leading a new initiative to bring cricket ball making back to the UK.

Cricket ball making has been listed as extinct in the UK since the first edition of the Red List of Endangered Crafts was published in 2017. While some of the processes that go into make a cricket ball are done in the UK, the highly-skilled hand-stitching is usually outsourced to other countries.

Heritage Crafts Co-Chair Jay Blades MBE said:

“We are putting a national shout out to trainers and wannabe cricket ball makers. Get in touch! We need to find retired makers, or anyone with knowledge of how to make cricket balls, to contact Heritage Crafts so we can capture those skills and hopefully pass them on to a new generation of cricket ball makers in this country. Come on Britain! Let’s get the ball rolling and bring cricket ball making back!”

The aim is to find serious trainees, perhaps with saddlery skills or a background in leather work, who want to learn how to make cricket balls. Heritage Crafts and partners, including Duke’s Cricket, are raising funds to support the training, so we can bring the craft of making top-level cricket balls back to the UK, the birthplace of cricket.

To register your interest as a potential trainer or trainee, please contact Heritage Crafts at [email protected].