Cricket uses balls of two colours, and players treat them as different pieces of equipment rather than the same object in another shade. The differences in manufacture are real.
Colour is applied differently to the leather
Red balls are dyed, with the colour penetrating the leather itself, and are then finished with a light coat of grease and polish.
White balls cannot be produced that way, because the leather's natural tone would show through. They are coated with a layer of white pigment and a clear lacquer over the top.
That surface coating is the origin of most behavioural differences. It sits on the leather rather than in it, so it wears as a layer rather than fading gradually.
Lacquer changes the early swing
A new white ball is slick and hard, and the coating keeps the surface smooth for a short period during which it can swing pronouncedly.
Once the lacquer scuffs away, usually within the first several overs, the ball tends to stop swinging fairly abruptly rather than tailing off across a session.
A red ball loses shine more gradually, which is why conventional swing with a red ball is available for a longer and more predictable window.
Reverse swing depends on asymmetric wear
Reverse swing requires one side to become rough and the other to stay smooth, with the roughness developing through contact with the ground and the outfield.
Red balls, played on abrasive surfaces over long innings, develop that contrast readily, which is why reverse swing is associated with the longer format.
White balls tend to lose their surface more evenly and are replaced or used for fewer overs, so the asymmetry rarely has time to establish itself.
Seam prominence declines at different rates
The stitched seam is what a bowler grips and what deviates the ball off the pitch, and its height above the surface falls as the ball is used.
White balls are frequently reported by bowlers to flatten sooner, partly because the coating fills around the stitching and partly because of how the ball is used in limited-overs cricket.
A flattened seam removes both the grip a spinner needs and the seam movement a quick bowler relies on, which shifts the contest towards the batter in the middle overs.
Visibility drives the whole arrangement
The reason two balls exist at all is that a red ball becomes very difficult to see against a dark background under floodlights, especially for fielders at distance.
White provides contrast against the sky and the crowd, at the cost of showing dirt and grass stains that reduce visibility as an innings progresses.
Attempts to reconcile the two, including balls of intermediate colour used in day-night matches, have produced their own behaviour again, which players report as different from either established ball.
