Cricket clubs have been told to throw away a special set of plastic balls used by children over concerns about their chemical content.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said balls provided free to participants of the All Stars and Dynamos youth participation schemes were found to contain levels of phthalates, a widely used Chemicals that increase the durability of plastics beyond approved limits. level.

The ECB said Dynamos cricket batting T-shirts and national scheme PVC banners included in the scheme also contained high phthalate levels and should no longer be used.

The schemes, which have been running since 2017, are used by more than 2,200 clubs and target children aged five to 11, according to the ECB.

A message from the ECB to participants in the scheme said: “Independent testing we have carried out has found that the levels of phthalates in these items exceed the levels permitted by relevant regulations.”

“To better understand the issue, we subsequently instructed an external specialist firm to carry out a risk assessment of the balls which have not identified any direct risk to project participants.

“However, the safety of our participants, volunteers and staff is our top priority and out of an abundance of caution we recommend that these balls are no longer used.

“We are very sorry that the affected products did not meet the standards we expected and for any concerns this may have caused.”

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Trading Standards and the Office for Product Safety and Standards have both been notified and, although neither agency has recommended a recall of the items, the ECB has written to its partner clubs advising that the items be discarded.

Further testing of the batting practice T-shirts and PVC banners used in the scheme is being carried out, but hard plastic bats and stumps have been approved.

The ECB said it intends to send new phthalate-free balls to all clubs from another supplier later this year, but said “the timetable remains to be confirmed” as it searches for a supplier.

It advises clubs to use tennis balls temporarily while they wait to receive new soft cricket balls.