If you are left amazed at batsmen, who hit the ball to incredible lengths of a cricket ground, it could well be due to an illegal willow, says a leading bat manufacturer
If you are left amazed at batsmen, who hit the ball to incredible lengths of a cricket ground, it could well be due to an illegal willow, says a leading bat manufacturer
Have modern-day batsmen become better hitters than Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd and Ian Botham or have they improved their technique when it comes to big-hitting? We have seen the ball travel some amazing distances off some of the blades in Twenty20 cricket.
According to a leading bat manufacturer, the secret behind some of the biggest hits in Twenty20 cricket could be bats that do not conform to International Cricket Council stipulations. Probably, it's time ICC officials do some thorough monitoring.
"We have these racing car bats where you glue two pieces of wood to have a thick but light bat. That's why you see some of these guys hitting the ball such amazing distances," a top official of a bat manufacturing company from South Africa told MiD DAY recently.
"Many of the current players are using big, thick bats in T20 cricket. It makes the ball travel very, very far. That is why you see these guys hitting such long distances. They are called racing car bats," the
bat expert said.
Not fair
A new bat with two different pieces of wood glued together is illegal, but it's legal if the bat is broken and then repaired. According to the bat manufacturer, batsmen are outsmarting officials by claiming they are playing with repaired bats when they are actually using a new bat.
"They (international players) have to play with Class 'A' bats at this level. They are not allowed to play with laminated bats. When we phoned the ICC to find out whether we should repair them, they said, 'yes, that's fine'. We asked whether a player can play with a repaired bat. They said, 'Yes, he can'. Even if I remove the broken piece of the bat and glue another piece of the bat, will he be able to play with that bat? 'Yes, no problem'. So, if it's a repaired bat then it's legal, if it's new, it's illegal.
"The ball travels much better than one piece of wood," revealed the bat manufacturer.
"We applied paint on the bat so that it looks like one piece but it is actually different material English willow and African coral tree on the back," he said. The magic formula he said was discovered around six months ago. Are other bat manufacturers doing the same? "Many of the other companies are doing the same. They are not supposed to, but they are," the bat-maker said.
Dave Richardson, ICC's General Manager of cricket said that normally match referees can spot an illegal bat, but admitted sometimes it could be difficult to identify without actually sawing the bat. "You would be able to tell whether a piece of wood has been glued to repair a bat or if it's a laminated bat. The match referees do conduct inspections from time to time and sometimes it is very difficult obviously without sawing the bat in order to see whether it is legal or not. But if a player takes a chance and it breaks on the field and he is caught, then he will be in serious trouble," Richardson told MiD DAY over the phone from London.
Revealing why these bats have the extra power, the bat expert said: "To make a bat, you press the wood to compress the top layer in so as to make the willow hard. Then, you take another piece of wood that is not pressed it is soft, and you stick it on the back of the bat.
"Then, the ball goes further like a trampoline and that is the racing car bat, like a Ferrari. These professionals only want to play with that bat. It makes the ball go much further than one piece of wood," he said.
Overall, the current batsmen prefer very thick blades, the manufacturer said. "Their blades are 50mm in thickness. It is a huge difference from the earlier times.
Most of the old bats had 20mm width. Apart from hitting long distances, the other advantage is if you edge, it flies. If you have a thin blade, the edge travels slower."
Richardson was aware of the magic formula which works for these glued bats. "That's right," he said when explained about the trampoline-effect of bats.
"That is one of the reasons why it is not regarded as legal. If there's any specific information regarding specific players, then obviously we will check. We do have inspections and if it is possible to see that it is illegal by the naked eye then obviously we will do something about it," added Richardson.
Elaborating on the ICC law on bat specifications, Richardson said: "The law says that the bat can be made only of wood. It is illegal to use glue on the bat. As soon as you glue two pieces of wood together, they call it a laminated bat. That means you have used some sort of adhesive, which is illegal. If there are bats like that and they are caught using them, then they will be regarded as illegal and players will be charged under ICC's code of conduct."
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