What is a Cricket Bat Made From?

First recorded in the 16th century, cricket is today played in more than 100 countries and is the national sport of England. Steeped in tradition, ceremony and countless rules, the sport itself embodies gentility, courtesy and highly specified physical prowess. Not surprisingly, the traits that so define cricket as a societal phenomenon are also embodied within cricket's primary tool--the cricket bat.

  1. History

    • While the particular origins of cricket and the cricket bat are not known, it has been theorized that the game owes its invention to shepherds. Perhaps first played, at least in a rudimentary sense, with shepherd's crooks; the cricket bat in the early years of the sport bore more resemblance to today's hockey sticks than the shape we know now.
      While many different styles of bats have been explored in the last 500 years, the dimensions and composition of cricket bats was not formally standardized until 1979, following what many refer to as the Heavy Metal incident.
      In Perth, Australia, during an international cricket match, bowling phenom Dennis Lillee strutted onto the field brandishing an aluminum bat. While there were no formal rules governing bat construction at that point, an British uproar ensued (10 to 15 minutes of animated discussion in perfect grammar). It was felt that the aluminum bat was damaging the ball, and Lillee was eventually persuaded to trade bats for a more conventional wood one. Shortly following this incident, formal rules were voted into place, demanding that the blades of cricket bats be made of wood.

    Standards

    • Today's rules allow for a bat not exceeding 38 inches long, with a blade of no more than 4.25 inches wide. The bat must be constructed of wood, and the current standard construction is a cane handle spliced into the wooden blade; a construction created in the 1880s. While there is no rule governing the weight of the bat, a lighter cane handle nonetheless allows for more power transferred from blade to ball. The somewhat elastic properties of cane translates into a springy snap, and thereby, as many feel, for more control over striking.

    Got Wood?

    • Typically, cricket bats are constructed of lightweight yet resilient willow. Specifically, Cricket Bat Willow (Salix alba coeruleais) is the preferred choice, as the name would somewhat subtly imply. For the most part, cricket bats are machine made, with some bats still hand made for professional players or for those with high-end tastes.

    Knocking In

    • Cricket bats, newly made, are not ready for use. They must first be "knocked in," a process of repeated percussion that requires several hours. Either with a cricket ball or a specialized cricket bat mallet, the bat is repeatedly struck, which compressed the fibers in the wood, allowing for greater resiliency. This limits the chances of the bat breaking when striking the ball, and offers the user greater power, control and speed. Some bats are available pre-knocked, so that the purchaser can avoid this up to eight-hour process; however, many players prefer to personalize their bats by knocking them in themselves.

    Considerations

    • Any sport that can survive and thrive over the course of half a millennium must, by its very nature, be enthralling, flexible and dynamic. Cricket is just such a sport. Capturing the attention, affection and hearts of more than a hundred countries, cricket has proved itself, in the eyes of history, to be as limber and resilient as the wood of the Salix alba coeruleais.