The first One Day International cricket game was played in January 1971. But no man had scored a double century in ODIs till 2010: It took 39 years and Sachin Tendulkar to finally go past the 200 mark. Since then, four men have accomplished the feat, with Rohit Sharma having done it twice. This World Cup has already seen two double centuries.
But instead of celebrating these records, Cricket purists lament how ODIs have become more and more a batsman's game. It's not just about the restrictions on fielding or bowling but also how the bats themselves have changed over the years. As Martin Crowe put it recently,
Bat evolution
The Oval in London houses the oldest surviving bat from 1729, which appears to be a close cousin of a hockey stick. But from the second half of the 19th century to that of the 20th century, from the playing days of WG Grace and Ranjitsinhji to those of Garfield Sobers and Barry Richards, the cricket bat had remained essentially unchanged.
And then things began to change. The 1960s saw the first wave of shoulder-less bats which allowed more weight to be distributed near the middle of the bat – also called “sweet spot” – for that is where a batsman gets maximum power when striking the ball. Double-sided bats made an appearance a few years later, and then came the Scoop in 1974, which turned the idea of shaping on its head by scooping out wood from the centre of the rear of the bat – the bat thus became lighter, its sweet spot grew and its pick up improved, which is what was marketed as "Perimeter Weighting".
Other innovations in bats followed suit: the Jumbo, the Slazenger V, the Magnum. In between, in 1979, Dennis Lillee walked out to bat with the aluminium ComBat and got the laws of the game rewritten, with the ICC specifying that the blade had to be made entirely of wood. While the International Cricket Council’s rules specify that the bat may be no more than 38 inches in length and 4.25 inches in width, there's no standard when it comes to the weight. And that is where the maximum experimentations have been attempted, by trying to change its centre of gravity.
Curved bats
Pictures of players from the start of the 21st century show that the bat is still traditional, slender-edged, flat-faced. Indeed the fashion had moved away from hollowed backs of Scoop and loaded spines of Jumbo to something less outré. The first intimations of change came in India, as as Jon Hotten wrote recently:
Shifting the weight
Taking the experimentation with the weight of the bat further, Deepak Pathania, an industrial designer from Mumbai, has come up with an innovative bat that’s clearly far from being seen during the international games anytime soon but promises even more entertainment for those who love boundaries.
Pathania posted the video first on his YouTube channel ‘dartofscience’ where he demonstrated the bat in action.
“The bat is essentially similar to normal bats we see but takes a certain weight out of it and attaches it on the back so that it’s movable as per the need,” he said while speaking to Scroll.in. “The idea is to help the batsman use the moving weight in the bat to clear boundaries as well as play finer shots which require precision.”
According to Pathania, the bat’s impact on the ball is more forceful when the weight reaches around the centre and it can go as much as 25% further as compared to normal bats. “One needs the heavy part of the bat closer to the handle while playing fine shots,” he said. “But you need the weight to shift near the sweet spot while clearing boundaries, which can’t happen in the modern day bat so we just decided to make the weight movable during the course of the game.”
It is not yet a question of the ICC rules permitting such a bat, for it to reach that stage, the bat first has to find acceptance from batsmen. Pathania hopes that the game will evolve further and his innovation would be found useful. “The game is always evolving. Many batsmen have experimented with their bats, and some specific format might allow these bats to be used,” he added.
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But instead of celebrating these records, Cricket purists lament how ODIs have become more and more a batsman's game. It's not just about the restrictions on fielding or bowling but also how the bats themselves have changed over the years. As Martin Crowe put it recently,
The manufacturer has produced a lethal weapon that authorities now need to rein in. Simple reason: the grounds, much like golf courses around the world, are struggling to contain the ball in the field of play. Sixes are struck now with ease. Mishits for the maximum are common. The bowler is at his wit's end. Any more grand technology to the bat and the game will become alien.
Oldest cricket bat on display
Bat evolution
The Oval in London houses the oldest surviving bat from 1729, which appears to be a close cousin of a hockey stick. But from the second half of the 19th century to that of the 20th century, from the playing days of WG Grace and Ranjitsinhji to those of Garfield Sobers and Barry Richards, the cricket bat had remained essentially unchanged.
And then things began to change. The 1960s saw the first wave of shoulder-less bats which allowed more weight to be distributed near the middle of the bat – also called “sweet spot” – for that is where a batsman gets maximum power when striking the ball. Double-sided bats made an appearance a few years later, and then came the Scoop in 1974, which turned the idea of shaping on its head by scooping out wood from the centre of the rear of the bat – the bat thus became lighter, its sweet spot grew and its pick up improved, which is what was marketed as "Perimeter Weighting".
Scoop: Image courtesy of Gray Nicolls Australia
Other innovations in bats followed suit: the Jumbo, the Slazenger V, the Magnum. In between, in 1979, Dennis Lillee walked out to bat with the aluminium ComBat and got the laws of the game rewritten, with the ICC specifying that the blade had to be made entirely of wood. While the International Cricket Council’s rules specify that the bat may be no more than 38 inches in length and 4.25 inches in width, there's no standard when it comes to the weight. And that is where the maximum experimentations have been attempted, by trying to change its centre of gravity.
Curved bats
Pictures of players from the start of the 21st century show that the bat is still traditional, slender-edged, flat-faced. Indeed the fashion had moved away from hollowed backs of Scoop and loaded spines of Jumbo to something less outré. The first intimations of change came in India, as as Jon Hotten wrote recently:
The blade was given an inward bow; instead of being a flat, sometimes convex surface, it took on a visually pleasing curve. That curve was mirrored on the sides of the bat, where the back edges swooped outwards at the middle. And on bats made for Indian pitches that middle was not really in the middle at all but a few degrees lower, giving the impression of deepening power as the player looked down on it.
The extra wood needed to come from somewhere. If the bat had simply been made bigger with no other change in method, it would have taken Chris Gayle to lift it. The older bats like the Jumbo and the Magnum that this new design was starting to dwarf were solid and heavy. The new bats had greater size but their density was different. The moisture content was lower, the pressing less firm, and wood shaved from the shoulders and the first few inches of the bat allowed more for the middle and on the edges.
It became an illusion of weight if not size. [WG] Grace once said that his own blade, which weighed 2lbs 5.5oz, was "heavy enough for any man". The modern pros mostly favour something between 2lbs 8oz and 2lbs 10oz. Even [Chris] Gayle's railway sleeper, said to tip the scale at 3lbs, weighs less than the Jumbo of Graham Gooch or the Magnum of Clive Lloyd.
Shifting the weight
Taking the experimentation with the weight of the bat further, Deepak Pathania, an industrial designer from Mumbai, has come up with an innovative bat that’s clearly far from being seen during the international games anytime soon but promises even more entertainment for those who love boundaries.
Pathania posted the video first on his YouTube channel ‘dartofscience’ where he demonstrated the bat in action.
“The bat is essentially similar to normal bats we see but takes a certain weight out of it and attaches it on the back so that it’s movable as per the need,” he said while speaking to Scroll.in. “The idea is to help the batsman use the moving weight in the bat to clear boundaries as well as play finer shots which require precision.”
According to Pathania, the bat’s impact on the ball is more forceful when the weight reaches around the centre and it can go as much as 25% further as compared to normal bats. “One needs the heavy part of the bat closer to the handle while playing fine shots,” he said. “But you need the weight to shift near the sweet spot while clearing boundaries, which can’t happen in the modern day bat so we just decided to make the weight movable during the course of the game.”
It is not yet a question of the ICC rules permitting such a bat, for it to reach that stage, the bat first has to find acceptance from batsmen. Pathania hopes that the game will evolve further and his innovation would be found useful. “The game is always evolving. Many batsmen have experimented with their bats, and some specific format might allow these bats to be used,” he added.
