Cricket Bat :



A cricket bat is a specialised piece of equipment used by batsmen in the sport of cricket to hit the ball. It is usually made of willow wood. Its use is first mentioned in 1624.


The blade of a cricket bat is a wooden block that is generally flat on the stiking face and with a ridge on the reverse (back) which concentrates wood in the middle where the ball is generally hit. The blade is connected to a long cylindrical cane handle, similar to that of a tennis racquet, by means of a splice. The edges of the blade closest to the handle are known as the shoulders of the bat, and the bottom of the blade is known as the toe of the bat.
The bat is traditionally made from willow wood, specifically from a variety of White Willow called Cricket Bat Willow, (Salix alba var. caerulea), treated with raw (unboiled) linseed oil. The oil has a protective function. This wood is used as it is very tough and shock-resistant, not being significantly dented nor splintering on the impact of a cricket ball at high speed, while also being light in weight. It incorporates a wooden spring design where the handle meets the blade. The current design of a cane handle spliced into a willow blade was the invention in the 1880s of Charles Richardson, a pupil of Brunel and the chief engineer of the Severn railway tunnel.[1]
Maintenance:
The blade of a cricket bat is a wooden block that is generally flat on the stiking face and with a ridge on the reverse (back) which concentrates wood in the middle where the ball is generally hit. The blade is connected to a long cylindrical cane handle, similar to that of a tennis racquet, by means of a splice. The edges of the blade closest to the handle are known as the shoulders of the bat, and the bottom of the blade is known as the toe of the bat.
The bat is traditionally made from willow wood, specifically from a variety of White Willow called Cricket Bat Willow, (Salix alba var. caerulea), treated with raw (unboiled) linseed oil. The oil has a protective function. This wood is used as it is very tough and shock-resistant, not being significantly dented nor splintering on the impact of a cricket ball at high speed, while also being light in weight. It incorporates a wooden spring design where the handle meets the blade. The current design of a cane handle spliced into a willow blade was the invention in the 1880s of Charles Richardson, a pupil of Brunel and the chief engineer of the Severn railway tunnel.[1]


Variations/technology of the cricket bat:


Australian cricketer Dennis Lillee briefly used an aluminium metal bat in 1979. After some discussion with the umpires, and after complaints by the English team that it was damaging the ball, he was urged by the Australian captain Greg Chappell to revert to a wooden bat.[5] The rules of cricket were shortly thereafter amended, stating that the blade of a bat must be made solely of wood.[2]
tenzin and Puma have created bats with lightweight carbon handles so that more weight can be used for the blade. In 2008, Gray-Nicolls trialed a double-sided bat.[6]
In 2005, Kookaburra released a new type of bat that a Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer support down the spine of the bat. It was put on the bat to provide more support to the spine and blade of the bat, thus prolonging the life of the bat. The first player to use this new bat in international cricket was Australian Ricky Ponting. However this new innovation in cricketing technology was controversially banned by the ICC [7] as they were advised by the MCC that it unfairly gave more power in the shot and was unfair in competition as not all players had access to this new technology. But this was not taken lightly by Australian media as Ponting had scored plenty of runs since he started to use his new bat and English reporters blamed this on his new, 'unfair' piece of technology in his bat.
At IPL 2010 a new bat manufacturing company called Mongoose announced new design of cricket bat known as Mini Mongoose. The bat has a shorter thicker blade and an longer handle with the splice set in the handle to provide more hitting area in the bat face, to play huge shots. This is as the unique low centre of gravity gives the bat much greater bat speed and as it has a shorter blade the blade can be thicker for the same weight meaning there is more bat behind the ball allowing the ball to be hit further. This bat is in use by Andrew Symonds, Matthew Hayden, Stuart Law, Praneet Singh and Dwayne Smith. However it does have several drawbacks as it is shorter it is less useful for defensive batting and doesn't offer the same protection to a short ball. This means it helps the attacking game but at the expense of the defensive game. This restricts its usefulness to Twenty20 where attack is the aim rather than Test or championship cricket where longer innings require a more subtle approach.


                                         By: AMEYA DEVDATTA SANGEP


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