The strong smell of chemicals is overwhelming. Pale blue lambskins are piled high on a wooden clothes-horse, dripping wet. Six or seven cavernous dye drums are rumbling and vibrating, making me want to cover my ears.

These are potent memories from my childhood when I was occasionally allowed inside the leather tannery at Strong & Fisher Ltd in Rushden, where my dad was sales and marketing director. Strong & Fisher produced clothing leather, but at Joseph Clayton & Sons tannery in Chesterfield a significant proportion of the production is cricket-ball leather. Claytons are the UK’s major producer of leather for cricket balls and have been supplying Dukes and Readers for over 20 years. Dukes manufacture the balls used for men’s Test and first-class cricket in the UK.

My mission is to better understand the differences between red, white and pink cricket-ball leather. While many things contribute to the way a ball behaves in a match, a major factor underpinning it is how the leather for that ball is tanned and finished.

Production of leather for a traditional cherry-red Dukes with a hand-stitched seam starts with a raw cowhide. Once the hides have been cured to prevent bacterial breakdown, the hair and flesh is removed, and the skins are pickled, ready for tanning.

During tanning, a chemical reaction takes place between the skin protein and a tannin agent, preventing any further bacterial action.

Alum tanning, dating back 1,000 years, is the preferred method for tanning cricket-ball leather because the chemical bonds produce a strong leather with good durability. Alum tanning produces skins that are easier to dye, and the whitish base colour makes them ideal for producing white and pink leather as well as red.

Elliott confirmed that after tanning by Packer Leather in Queensland, the leather is drum-dyed by Kookaburra to a pastel-pink colour, with the dye penetrating right through the skin. The film of bright-pink colour sprayed on top is mysteriously referred to as the G7 finish. Elliott would not reveal details of the make-up of this spray coat, but explained that its purpose was to enhance the visibility of the ball. Finally, to preserve the colour, the top coat of nitro-cellulose lacquer is applied.

Pigment completely covers the surface of the leather, forming a barrier to the natural grain. Elliott acknowledges that the pink ball will be harder to polish than the red Kookaburra once the outer layer wears down. “With the red, the top coat does scuff off within the first 10 to 15 overs and then the natural fats of the ball are what encourage the later shining. This feature is still possible with the pink ball, however it is harder to shine. This will mean that teams will need to work hard at preserving the condition of the ball. I suspect this will be one of the challenges.”

Thanks to John Riches (DLC National Leathersellers College) Joe Dewhurst (former Technical Director Joseph Clayton & Sons) and the Society of Leather Technologists and Chemists.