Tape Ball Cricket

A tape ball is a tennis ball wrapped in electrical tape and is used in playing street cricket. This modification of the tennis ball gives it greater weight, speed and distance while still being easier to play with than the conventional cricket ball. The variation was pioneered in Karachi, Pakistan and is credited with Pakistan's famous production of fast bowlers as children are brought up playing the game using a tape ball in which various skills are developed. The increasing popularity of the tape ball in informal, local cricket has transformed the way games are played in cricket-loving nations such as India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh but most famously Pakistan. Such has been the impact of tape ball that in recent years some companies have introduced tennis balls designed to act like cricket balls.These balls are quite popular in South Asia where tape ball cricket is one of the most popular forms of the sport.

Every youth of Pakistan gets introduced to tape ball cricket very early on. Every city, town, and village has tape ball leagues (especially during the month of Ramadan). Export of this idea from Pakistanis who settled in the west has led to its popularity throughout UK, USA, and Canada. The tape ball has gained popularity in England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the West Indies, but remains most popular and widely used in Pakistan and Bangladesh, and, to a lesser extent, in Sri Lanka. Generations of professional and amateur Pakistani cricket players since the 1980s have been raised playing tape-ball cricket in their neighbourhood streets and grounds. Professional cricketers such as Saeed Anwar, Rashid Latif, Asif Mujtaba, Moin Khan and Basit Ali enjoy the medium and play regularly. Extensive enthusiasm for the medium has led to the institutionalisation of the tape ball in Pakistani cricket.

Tape balls are extensively decorated in different colours, and different kinds of electrical tapes and fibres are used to maximise their advantages.