By Charles Randall

7 August 2014

The MCC recently raised the subject of bats and how they have evolved into thick-edged monsters. The question of what action to take, if any, with regard to the Laws was shelved for the time being, but the evidence was startling.

A report by Imperial College, London, into the effectiveness of bat design rather confirmed what many club cricketers probably think – that bowlers are at a disadvantage when confronted by efficient bulky bats, especially those with an ultra-thick edge, such as the 2013 Nemesis and Scoop, that send mis-hits flying into the open spaces and beyond.

The edge of a Nemesis is three times thicker than an old-fashioned regular bat which, for testing, happened to be a 1905 Ranjit, the orthodox design that seems to have survived into the post-War years until extra-wood concepts offered alternatives such as the first Scoop in 1974. But the Nemesis edge is more than twice as thick as even a 1980 Powerspot.

The bats tested by Imperial College were from Gray-Nicolls. These were a 1905 'Ranjit' (45mm thick, 14mm edge), 1980 Powerspot (55mm thick, 18mm edge), 2009 Predator (59mm thick, 19mm edge), 2013 Scoop (47mm thick, 34mm edge), 2013 Nemesis (69mm thick, 41mm edge). The weights did not vary much, to assist comparison, with the Ranjit at 2lbs 2oz to the Nemesis at 2lbs 6oz, but the researchers noticed significant advantages for the thick bats.

The Imperial report concluded: “Bat design can have a significant effect on performance. The newer bats, by and large, confer a performance advantage in terms of the feel to the batsman (a likely reduction in vibrations transmitted to the hands) which concomitantly will result in less energy absorption by the bat and batsman and thus a greater proportion of the energy will be imparted to the ball. This advantage is shown by the greater sweet spot at both the centre and edge of the newer bats. Of note is the fact that the scooped bat has the largest sweet spot, yet it is not the heaviest bat. This is a highly optimised design for a large sweet spot.”

The report added: “A second measure of energy ‘loss’ is the natural frequency test, which shows that all bats are similar in this regard. Of note is the fact that the newest and oldest bats performed equally in this regard. Pick-up weight has increased dramatically over the years. This is a function of absolute weight, but also of geometry and balance. The results show clearly that even if the bats were made of equal weight, the newer bats will be harder to ‘pick up’ but, for the same pick up weight, will impart greater energy to the ball due to the greater moment of inertia; this results in a collision of greater energy and thus confers a performance advantage. Finally, the new experiment conducted here has shown that the greater torsional stiffness of the newer bats, the scooped bat in particular, will likely confer an advantage in the ‘mis-hit’ or a shot off the edge of the bat.”

The MCC's world cricket committee, a group of eminent former Test players from various countries under the chairmanship of Mike Brearley, discussed the specially commissioned Imperial College research at a meeting at Lord's in July. “With mixed views in the room,” the MCC reported, “the committee has decided that the balance between bat and ball has not yet tipped so far in favour of the batsman so as to warrant a change to the Laws of Cricket.”

The committee debated the pros and cons of the big increase in sixes, such as how boundaries were good for those watching the game in the ground and on television, as against the apparent prevalence of mis-hits now going against the bowler by clearing the boundary ropes. The committee discussed the importance for boundaries themselves to be pushed out as far as possible – within health and safety regulations –  to prevent bowlers from being disadvantaged even more. With no consensus, the committee felt the MCC should continue to monitor the bat and boundary aspect of the game closely.

One can easily accept that bats weighing up to 3lbs on flat pitches reduce the size of grounds at professional level, and the MCC's table of trends in one-day international matches since the start in 1979 is quite revealing. In the last 20 years the number of sixes per game worldwide has more than doubled. A match is likely to produce about seven sixes these days, quite a lot more than three per game in 1994 and perhaps a couple in 1979.

The parallel twenty20 format has created new frontiers of run-blasting, and no doubt equipment will continue to play an important part.

The Nemesis is trumpeted as “every bowler's nightmare”. The sales slogan runs: “Designed in conjunction with today’s most explosive batsmen, Gray-Nicolls has created a beast.” But there are nightmares and nightmares. Brian Lara scored his 501 for Warwickshire in 1994 with a Scoop, and Alastair Cook uses one of the more orthodox Gray-Nicolls designs, as have many England captains before him, including Walter Hammond and WG Grace.

The Club Cricket Conference has no view on the bat issue, as long as the cost of buying a bat remains at reasonable levels for amateur players.

http://www.lords.org/assets/Agenda-item-11.3-size-of-cricket-bats.pdf
http://www.lords.org/assets/Agenda-Item-11.3-boundary-percentages.pdf