The Bat of the Matter

“I never play cricket. It requires one to assume such indecent postures.” – Oscar Wilde

I’m not sure what Oscar Wilde’s exact thoughts about cricket were, but he certainly must have imagined a Kevin Pietersen changing his grip from right hand to left hand, forcing the wicketkeeper to move from the right side to the left side while the bowler is in the middle of his run-up, and in all the chaos, thrashing the bewildered bowler for a six. Yeah, I’m sure, that’s what he thought in the morning calm, between the sip of tea and the jotting of the quote above. Nothing else about cricket can be dubbed indecent.

Cricket is going through a phase I’m tempted to call the ‘renaissance of modern cricket’. Be it the voluntary changes brought about with smaller boundaries, sporting wickets - as in the IPL - better cricket gears and the involuntary changes brought about with the advent of Twenty20, cricket is being played like never before. Strange and at times awe-inspiring shots are coming off the bat. Add to that, commercial interests to the tune of billions. Never before had cricket been so competitive. While, as a cricket enthusiast, one may relish this form of high-speed, high-risk, better-packaged cricket, it wouldn’t be unwise to question, ‘Where is this leading to?’ or ‘Are we playing cricket?’ Given the competition, it’s obvious players would add new shots, however strange, to their armory. The ICC needs to delve into the core of the issue and only then can a good solution be made.

Take Kevin Pietersen’s strange shot as an example. After he played the shot off his own bat, the ICC and the MCC did bat around about it for sometime and fortunately didn’t play a straight bat, thus accepting it to be legal. Present cricketers didn’t even bat an eyelid citing Twenty20 would produce stranger innovations and the ICC is happily batting for them, oblivious of the prime perpetrator – the Bat.

It’s not just Twenty20, modern cricket bats are doing as much harm as anything can do to cricket. If Twenty20 has allowed batsmen to plan outrageous shots, good bats have allowed them to execute such shots. Given that winning is the be-all and end-all these days and players are producing unusual shots in desperation, the day is not far away when with the help of a good bat and strong muscles one handed tennis shots become the order of the day. Cricket will cease to be cricket and end up being a shoddy hotchpotch of golf, baseball and tennis. If the administrators care a fig about the game, a check must be put not only on the format but also on the cricket gear and equipment.

Innovation is exciting but cheapjack innovation based on jerry-built technique is a strict no-no. And to expose weak techniques, the quality of bats needs to be controlled. Let the boundaries be small, let the pitch be flat, you still need to be a good batsman to dispatch the ball, unless you have a very good bat in hand. A good bat hides bad technique. What would be a wrong shot is transformed into brilliant due to the sheer strength of the bat. Take MS Dhoni for example. He has over 5000 international runs in all the three forms of the game in just over three years and one is yet to see a good cover drive off his bat. If he’s the future, cricket is indubitably taking a nosedive.

Ian Chappell said in the post match analysis in an Asia Cup match a couple of days back that he once asked Andrew Symonds about the improvement in the quality of bats and Symonds replied with a gesture of hand showing a 45 degree rise. True, good bats produce amazing shots and we have seen yorkers been hit for sixes, reverse sweeps hit for sixes but who wouldn’t love to watch a crisp cover drive or an immaculate straight drive. They fetch boundaries and yet do not need strong bats or muscles. The rate at which bats are getting stronger, one might have to be contented with flat-batted hits through the cover. Gone would be the days when a shot would make you exclaim ‘Beautiful!’ Cricket would look much better on newspaper than on television. And then there would be commercials or would they be then?. Now don’t get me started on that.

CHEERS!

P.S.: Evolution of cricket bats

Posted by Zapper on Sat 28 Jun

9 comments

I agree with you in that bats are getting better all the time while the ball has remained mostly unchanged for 150 years!

A mad swipe for six becomes a glorious shot (Not to mention a DLF maximum :) and baseball swings are fast becoming the order of the day, thanks to the overkill of Twenty20, which has already murdered cricket ten times over.

Re KP's switch hit, I'd just like to clarify my view on it.

Mainly I think it is against the spirit of the game, and in the interest of sport being played gentlemanly, I'd advice him against the stroke.

But if the shot is legal and he continues playing it, if I were the umpire, the finger would go up the moment I see ball hit pad. Joker shots like those should let the batter pay the price, similar to what they do in lower forms of cricket - Play a bad shot, miss, and theres no way you're getting away with it!

Cricket is changing in these few years like it never has had before. Just as I speak, New Zealand have rattled 402/2 against Ireland. Sure, its nice to see some big hits and quick scoring, but at the cost of competitiveness..even chocolate can leave a bitter taste sometimes.. The ICC needs to get its priorities right-if only the money goes to the right places, we'd all be a lot better off.

There's no doubt, whether we like it or not, we are heading in a new direction. But sometimes, the pole star seems awry, the guiding light is just not leading us anymore, and with the dazzle of the dollar always $educing us, I just hope we don't lose our way..

Posted by Ajesh Nag on 2008-07-01 23:53:43

Well at least someone had courage to take a stand against the wrong precedent ICC is setting by reversing match result - http://www.sportinglife.com/cricket/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=cricket/08/07/04/CRICKET_ICC_Holding.html

Posted by unsuidojo on 2008-07-05 22:01:42

A bit late for commenting on but I've been taking a look at Cricket bats and why they perform but agreed there is a slogger mentality out there but technique still is the most important thing. Imagine Bradman with a cricket bat from this era... What would he achieve!

Here is snippet on Bats and why they perform...

There are a few ways of looking at why a cricket bat performs and a few schools of thought all correct in there own way.

As you probably know from phyiscs for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, also energy cannot be created or destroyed it can be transfered or transformed converted from one form to another.

The upshot is though, as you can all probably guess, is to transfer as much of the energy you are exerting to swing the bat to the ball and conserve as much of the energy of the bowled ball speed.A real life example, we've all seen hotspot that is energy loss due to heat for the cricket ball hitting the cricket bat

Then there is the player holding the bat and what he is comfortable with and what makes him confident.

Thanks
Podshaver for San Andreas Fault Cricket Bats

There more information on this stuff here: www.cricket-stuff.co.uk

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