In Zimbabwe, it’s a crime to import them without permission from the central bank.

Reported earlier this month on TV's ICC Cricket World and here:

Two more senior Zimbabwe cricket officials have been arrested for allegedly violating the country's strict exchange control regulations, a newspaper reported Wednesday. […]

Earlier in the same week another official and two players had been arrested for exchange- control violations.

The Herald said charges against Chingoka and Bvute involved their alleged payment of foreign currency to suppliers outside the country without permission from Zimbabwe's central bank.

Chingoka was believed to have paid 12,000 pounds to a Pakistani company for the purchase of cricket balls ....

The exchange controllers may seem a tad zealous here, but it’s the principle of the thing: if you allow the criminal importation of cricket balls, who knows what might be next? Zimbabweans might start wantonly importing things they actually need to survive.