Can You Keep A Cricket Ball If It Flies To The Audience?

Are you planning to watch a live cricket game in a stadium? However, you don’t have any idea how to act during the game. That’s not a problem at all. You only need to enjoy the game (even when it’s a long one) and remember the rule for cricket balls that flies to the audience. This may excite you just the way a baseball flies to the audience because you can keep the ball as a souvenir. But can you keep a cricket ball if it flies to the audience?

You can’t keep a cricket ball if it flies to the audience. You can catch it, but you must return it to the umpire or the stewards securing the area. If you don’t return it, the steward may escort you off the stadium.

Cricket has a different set of rules, which experts call law, especially on ball rules. It is upsetting to know that you can’t bring home the ball you catch, but the law explains it well. Read the rest of the post to pick up in-depth information about the cricket ball.

What happens if you catch a cricket ball in the crowd?

There’s an odd chance you catch a cricket ball while a game is in progress unless you make your way to the field. If you’re lucky and catch it outside the boundary, you must return the ball to the umpire. If you catch it cleanly, you’ll have a short minute of fame, especially when it’s a televised game.

A cricket game is stricter than a baseball game in a manner that stewards and security police the perimeter fences in cricket. On the contrary, in baseball, you can see fans seated right above the fences, so it’s easy for them to catch the ball. So, catching a ball in a cricket game is harder than in baseball. If a fan catches the ball, two possible scenarios probably happen.

One of the probable scenarios is the fan intruding on the playing field. When a fan enters the playing field, the umpire calls a dead ball. The stewards apprehend the intruder and remove it on the playing field. In some cases, the intruder gets ejected from the stadium and charged with offenses. 

Another odd chance that you can catch a cricket ball is when the batsman gets a six, and you caught the ball. A six happened when the ball crossed the boundary line before the ball came into contact with the ground. Six means a run or a point that the team earns.

Can you keep a cricket ball if it flies to the audience?

Unfortunately, you can’t keep a cricket ball like you can keep a baseball once it flies to the audience. In baseball, a ball damaged by a hit is a retired ball, so fans can get it as a souvenir. In cricket, you replace the ball if it’s a ball lost, unfit for play, and reaches a specific number of overs.

Ball lost

Cricket follows Law 5.5, which focuses on unrecovered ball and a ball unfit for play. In all types of cricket, the umpires decide whether to replace the ball or not. If they can’t find the ball, the umpires can declare a ball lost, which allows them to replace the ball. However, it becomes complicated when they need to decide if the ball is unfit for play. 

Unfit ball criteria

When the ball has gone out of shape, the umpire can declare to replace the ball while the fielding captain can request for the replacement. However, the final judgment must come from the umpire. An umpire uses a ball gauge, which is a dimension measurement gadget. It checks if the cricket ball meets the measurement standard under the cricket law. A cricket ball with a damaged seam can fall to the criteria of an unfit ball.  

Bowling a specific number of overs

Another basis for replacing a ball is due to the number of overs of play. It is a mandatory replacement even if the cricket ball is not damaged. In Test Cricket, the ball is replaced after every 80 overs per inning. The replacement ball is an old ball with the same number of overs of the ball is replaced.

In crickets, the ball plays an important part in the game. Manufacturers do their best to produce high-quality balls perfect for competition. One of the most popular brands is the Kookaburra. It offers 4-piece and 2-piece balls that are used in different test matches and other games such as ODI and T20.

It is widely accepted around the world because of its consistency. You can get the exact same quality and size, which guarantees that each ball is standardized.

The brand also comes in different ranges such as indoor cricket ball, special test cricket ball, super coach technique leather ball, super coach sponge ball, and cricket spin ball. It has other categories, including the unisex cricket ball, Kookaburra Unisex’s County League, for a box of six in Amazon.

How much money do you get if you catch a cricket ball?

Traditional cricket ball game doesn’t allow you to catch a ball. But the New Zealand Cricket change the rules during the Catch A Million campaign by the brewery company, Tui. In 2018, a fan won NZ$50,000 for catching the ball at the Tri-Series Twenty20 international match between New Zealand and Australia.

Anyone who wore a Tui orange T-shirt, a lanyard, and caught a six with one hand wins the prize. To maintain the safety of other spectators, the organizers assigned a catching zone. It was a response after the campaign faced controversy for crowd safety concerns. It was reported that a catcher tumbled over a boy, and another hopeful fell on a woman sitting in front of him.   

New Zealand Cricket and Tui have no announcement yet, but it’s worth waiting, especially for a first-time live game spectator.