MAKING OF CRICKET BATS – By Dr. Gnana Sankaralingam Bats are carved specially from white willow (Salix Alba) which is found in Europe and Central Asia. This wood being light in weight, is tough and shock resistant, which means that it could handle high speed impact of a cricket ball without splintering. Tree which is ten years old, and with trunk 10 feet long, is ideal for making bats. Manufacture of bats is a blend of old tradition and modern methods. Trunk of willow is cut into roughly cricket bat sized chunks known as clefts and then carved into the familiar bat shape. Their ends are dipped in wax and are air dried for up to an year. Clefts are graded then into four levels using the criteria of straightness of the grain, width of the grain, any blemishes etc. Next the cleft goes through pressing process, where a machine ...
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Cricket bats made from BAMBOO are Stronger Cricket bats made from BAMBOO are stronger, offer a better ‘sweet spot’ and deliver more energy to the ball than those made from traditional willow, scientists claim Cricket bats are traditionally made of willow from the Salix alba tree But Cambridge researchers made a full-size prototype bat from bamboo They found the bamboo bats are three times stronger and 22% stiffer This means bats could be made lighter while still hitting the ball as hard and fast Few things are as quintessentially English as the crack of a leather-clad cricket ball being dispatched though the covers by a bat made of homegrown willow. But the global expansion of the game, driven by insatiable demand in Asia, has left manufacturers looking for cheaper, more sustainable alternatives to the light-coloured wood of the Salix alba tree. A team of scientists now believe bamboo may not only ...
