The most fundamental components of the game of cricket are a bat and a ball. The cricket ball has remained almost the same both in size and shape ever since the beginning of the game;however, there has been a major transformation in cricket bats over the years.

 

Shape- A cricket bat is shaped like a paddle consisting of a long handle, which is cylindrical in shape. This widens into the blade of the bat. There are 2 sides of the cricket bat: One of them, which is flat and is the area from where the ball is generally stroked. The other side is to shed the wood in places it isn’t necessary and to leave more wood in the middle of the bat.

 

There is a huge difference in the shape of the cricket bats today and the bats that were used during the game’s establishment. The first time a cricket bat was used is believed to be way back in 1624.These bats really resembled what hockey sticks look like today. This is because of of the fact that the ball was rolled along the ground under-arm rather than flighted in the air. Therefore, in order to hit the ball nicely, one had to use a horizontal motion and the designing of bats like hockey sticks made it easier to do so. However, all that changed when the laws of cricket permitted overarm bowling.

Width-  Currently, the width of the cricket bat is set at four and one quarter inches. This Law of Cricket was made in the 18th century by the Marylebone Cricket Club (the farmer and the copyright holder of the Laws of Cricket) and has remained the same ever since. Before this law was set, there were bats made with various kinds of widths and in fact, bats were made that were the width of the stumps.

 

The willow- Almost all professional cricket bats have historically been made from willow wood, from a variety of White Willow to be precise. This willow is very strong and lasts for quite a long time. Thus, the bat is prevented from splintering when striking the cricket ball with a high bat speed. The bats that were made in the 1980s brought one drawback to cricket: they were extremely heavy with the weight of an average bat being an enormous 5 pounds. This was because of the use of the heartwood of the tree.

 

In 1890, C.C. Bussey, an English bat manufacturer, found a solution to this by experimenting the use of the sapwood of the willow tree to make a bat. He found out that bats made from the sapwood of the tree are much lighter. After that, the practice of using the heartwood of the tree was shelved once and for all.

Getting heavier and heavier- The beginning of the 20th century was the turning point in cricket and the game starting to become more professional than it was earlier. This was also the times when the likes of Sir Don Bradman, Wally Hammond and George Hadley emerged. Since then, the shape of the bat has not changed much; but what has changed, is the weight of the bat.

 

Bats used to weigh around 2 pounds and 2 ounces. This was because batsmen generally felt that heavy bats restricted them for playing freely. However, this is no longer the case; most bats weigh around 3 pounds today. Players are not burdened by these bats because of the light pickup and extreme comfort.

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The trick of this comfort in a modern-day bat despite the fact that they are heavy depends on how many times the wood is pressed. In the earlier days, or even 20 years ago, the bats were pressed extensively so that they could last for a considerable period of time. However, modern day cricketers don’t have a problem with bats that don’t last a significant amount of time. Less pressing of the wood results in superior efficiency of the bat and this is the overwhelming demand of current players. Due to this, a player in the present generation normally goes through 10-12 bats in a season. This was a rarity for past players.

 

Effect on the game- The evolution of the process of bat making has brought about a paradigm shift in cricket. The sport is a lot more entertaining to watch due to the high percentage of runs being scored by 4s and 6s. Even in test matches, where quick run scoring is not a priority,the average runs per over has reached around 3.50, which was a rare occurrence even a decade ago. This quicker run scoring has been hugely because of the evolution of bats.

 

However, there is a downside. Bowlers are being increasingly marginalized, especially in limited-overs. In most limited-overs matches, batsmen are the ones who are in spotlight because of the big hitting. Bowlers are being ignored and are not noticed as much as the batsmen.

 

The introduction of T20s has underlined the imbalance existing between bat and ball. The variety and the strength of a batsmen’s shots already cause a headache for the bowlers. On top of that, bat manufacturers are constantly coming up with bats to aid the performance of a batsman. Some of these bats include the Mongoose and the Gray-Nicolls Kaboom.

 

With bat manufacturers constantly coming up with new methods to improve their product, there is no doubt that future cricket bats are only going to get bigger and stronger.