Action Alerts

Urge the ICC and BCCI to Switch to Synthetic-Leather Balls

Although fans around the globe are enjoying watching cricket, the sport is anything but fun for the animals whose skins are used to make balls. PETA has written to the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Board for Cricket Control in India (BCCI) asking it to make the recently held Cricket World Cup the last one in which real leather cricket balls are used and to switch to synthetic-leather balls instead.

In India, the source of much of the world's leather, cows are often marched to slaughter for days without food or water. When the cows collapse from exhaustion, workers often smear chilli peppers and tobacco in the animals' eyes and twist their tails until they break in an effort to keep the animals moving. At the slaughterhouse, animals are hacked at with dull knives, often in full view of one another.

Leather production also wreaks havoc on the environment. Toxic chemicals are used to process leather, and they pollute waterways and can sicken people who work at tanneries.

You Can Help
Join PETA in urging the ICC and the BCCI to stop supporting cruelty by switching to synthetic-leather balls immediately.