Variations/technology of The Cricket Bat
Various companies have over the years tried new shapes that come within the laws of the game to make a name for themselves and to improve sales. In the 1960s the first shoulderless bats appeared from Slazenger; the 1970s saw double-sided bats from Warsop Stebbing.
In 1974 the first GN100 Scoop was released; this was the first bat to turn shaping on its head by removing the wood from the centre of the rear of the bat. This bat quickly became a big seller and various scooped bats such as the GN500, Dynadrive and Viper have been released by Gray Nicolls ever since, including a re-release of the Scoop itself for the 2012 English season. The removal of wood from the rear has been copied by many other companies without much critical acclaim.
In 1979 Australian cricketer Dennis Lillee briefly used an ComBat aluminium metal bat. After some discussion with the umpires, and after complaints by the English team that it was damaging the ball, he was urged by the Australian captain Greg Chappell to revert to a wooden bat. The rules of cricket were shortly thereafter amended, stating that the blade of a bat must be made solely of wood.
In 2004 Newbery created the Uzi with a truncated blade and elongated handle for the new Twenty20 format of the game. This change allowed more wood to be placed in the middle, as more attacking shots are played in the shorter version of the game.
In 2005 Kookaburra released a new type of bat that had a Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer support down the spine of the bat. It was put on the bat to provide more support to the spine and blade of the bat, thus prolonging the life of the bat. The first player to use this new bat in international cricket was Australian Ricky Ponting. However this innovation in cricketing technology was controversially banned by the ICC as they were advised by the MCC that it unfairly gave more power in the shot and was unfair in competition, as not all players had access to this new technology. But this was not taken lightly by Australian media as Ponting had scored plenty of runs since he started to use his new bat and English reporters had blamed this success on the new, 'unfair' piece of technology in his bat.
In 2005 Newbery created a carbon fibre handle, the C6 and C6+, which weighed 3 ounces less than a standard laminated cane and rubber handle. It was used by Newbery and Puma for 3 years before the concept was copied by Gray Nicolls with a hollow plastic tube. However, this provoked the MCC to change the law on materials in handles amid fears that the new technology would lead to an increase in the distance the ball was hit. Now only 10% of the volume of the handle can be other than cane.
In 2008 Gray-Nicolls launched a bat with a second face on the base of the back of the bat. It was purely a marketing move as no paid players used the bat in competition. In 2011 they also produced a bat with an offset handle position known as The Edge in what was also purely a marketing move.
Also in late 2008, SAFBats created a cricket bat with an offset edge, the edge offsetting allowed for an extended middle, better swing weight and increased performance without compromising the cricket bat's balance. The production models were available in 2009, and the bat won awards in 2010 and 2012
In 2009 an extreme version of the Newbery Uzi shape was launched by Mongoose. It was named the MMi3 and had a very much shorter blade and longer handle than had been seen before. Launched with a fanfare of publicity it proclaimed the idea of not defending the ball in the T20 format and purely playing attacking shots. The firm also produced a conventional bat, CoR3 with a splice hidden in the handle. This bat was marketed as being able to hit sixes from all parts of the blade.
Also in 2009 Black Cat Cricket launched a T20 format bat, the Joker. It worked on a similar principle to other T20 bats with the blade length reduced by one inch and an inch longer handle, but uniquely reduced the width of the bat to 4 inches in an adult bat.
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