The controversial trial which saw the Kookaburra ball used for some rounds of the County Championship season has been scrapped after three seasons.
The ECB first proposed the trial as part of Andrew Strauss' high-performance review three years ago in the hope that using the Kookaburra ball - rather than the Dukes - would encourage the development of spinners and bowlers with "extreme skills". The pilot initially lasted two rounds of games in the 2023 season, and was criticised by county coaches.
Rob Key, the ECB's managing director of men's cricket, was a strong advocate for the Kookaburra ball and convinced the counties to expand the trial to four rounds for the 2024 season. Surrey's Alec Stewart described that as "the worst decision ever" but Key doubled down, saying it had produced "some bloody good cricket" after 17 of the first 18 fixtures ended in draws.
The Kookaburra was used for four further rounds in 2025 but again produced a high proportion of draws, epitomised by Surrey piling on a club-record 820 for 9 declared against Durham at The Oval.
It led directors of cricket from the 18 counties to make clear their wish to scrap the trial at a meeting last month, and the decision to revert to using the Dukes ball throughout the 2026 season was confirmed at a meeting of the Cricket Advisory Group - a sub-committee of the ECB Professional Game Committee - earlier this week.
Key and the ECB have taken a more hands-off approach to county cricket in recent years, and made a point of leaving discussion over proposed fixture restructures to the clubs earlier this summer. The counties failed to come to an agreement over the future of the Championship, but did agree to a small cut in the number of T20 Blast fixtures for 2026.