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Cricket loves its laws – or ‘Laws’, as some prefer – and law 5.3.2. seems as certain as the sun rising in the east: ‘The blade shall consist solely of wood.’ But for how much longer?
In late August, this column flagged up what MCC have dubbed the ‘cricket bat emergency’, a response to a shortage of English willow which has pushed up bat prices and raised concerns about inclusion in a sport forever trying to position itself as a game for the people.
Behind the scenes, though, work has been done on a cheaper alternative that looks like a bat, feels like a bat and plays like a bat. It contains materials such as fibreglass, carbon and Kevlar (a heat-resistant synthetic fibre also used in bulletproof vests), and is the brainchild of Richard Mansfield, an Anglo-Indian entrepreneur who hopes his product can revolutionise the cricket equipment market – as long as it’s given the chance.
‘If I stood the bat up on a wall with four or five traditional bats, you wouldn’t know from two or three feet away that it’s carbon,’ he tells Daily Mail Sport.
‘Cricket is the only sport that hasn’t evolved. Five or 10 years ago, hockey was all wooden sticks. Tennis rackets were once all wood. Golf too. Now they’re all composite. Every sport has moved on from wood to a composite or a metal, and cricket’s the only one that has remained stationary.
‘I’ve got a couple of girls who started playing for Middlesex in the age groups. So I went out to buy a bat, and I realised that a half-decent bat was about £400. The price is just getting silly, but our price point is around £100-150. It makes it very affordable for everybody.’
Richard Mansfield with his creation - a non-wood bat that uses carbon, fibreglass and Kevlar
Former England captain Alastair Cook at the Gray-Nicolls factory in Kent. But willow bats have become increasingly expensive as the amount of wood available has dwindled
Workers make willow bats at a factory in Kashmir to try to keep up with demand, which has increased alongside the rise of T20 cricket
The bats were trialled at this summer’s Apex Cricket Festival at Millfield School in Somerset, where onlookers included former Test captain Andrew Strauss and England all-rounder Ebony Rainford-Brent. Strauss was sceptical at first but ended up giving Mansfield his mobile number.
And while they remain unsanctioned by MCC, custodians of the game’s Laws, Mansfield will have a seat at the table when industry stakeholders congregate at Lord’s next week to discuss a way out of the ‘emergency’.
MCC officials are understood to be cautious but curious about his prototype, and the meeting will start with the attitude that nothing can be ruled out if cricket is to come up with a solution to the shortage of quality English willow.
But if he can get a foothold in the junior game, where regulations are less strict than at professional level, he believes cricket will be one step closer to a more affordable revolution. And a more sustainable one: Mansfield says his bats can last up to 10 years, though it’s hard to imagine the price tag not reflecting the longevity.
The willow industry regard his project with understandable concern, but Mansfield warns against a monopoly, and urges them and others to be a ‘bit more open-minded’. He adds: ‘This game of ours needs to evolve, and I think a few more people need to have a say in it.’
And in case the bat’s presence at fee-paying Millfield (£19,000 a term for boarders), where it was received enthusiastically, conjures up more thoughts of elitism, Mansfield says an official from the South African cricket board also attended the Apex Festival: ‘For him, the first thing was that we could get something like this into Soweto and all the townships, where cricket is very hard to make accessible.’
Of course, non-wooden bats send shivers down the spine of traditionalists, not just for age-old aesthetic reasons but because of fears the new models may further skew the imbalance between bat and ball. As one industry insider put it: ‘Any new bat has to be a) good enough, and b) not too good.’
Mansfield is alive to the danger: ‘We don’t want a bat that’s going to overperform. What we are trying to do is engineer a bat that performs like a grade one willow bat, but comes in at maybe quarter of the price. It’s then about making that bat accessible for all the brands, so Gray-Nicolls or Kookaburra can come to us and put their stickers on it.’
Dennis Lillee's aluminium ComBat caused controversy in the Perth Ashes Test of 1979 when England's Mike Brearley claimed it would damage the ball. The bat was later banned
No one wants a repeat of Dennis Lillee’s short-lived experiment with his aluminium blade against England at Perth in 1979, when Mike Brearley complained it might damage the ball. Mansfield says no damage has yet been reported from his bats. Lab testing has begun with data expected early next year. There are still questions to answer.
Crucially, though, his bat – manufactured by his business partner Sanjay Kohli in Jalandhar in India’s Punjab – weighs less than its traditional equivalent, which comes in at around 2lb 10oz to 2lb 12oz. ‘We’ve got it coming down to about two five, two six,’ he says. ‘Professionally, women cricketers are getting a lot stronger, but if you’re trying to encourage teenage girls to get into cricket right now, full-size bats are too heavy to control.’
Already, Mansfield is talking excitedly about ‘phase two’, when he hopes his product can make the transition from a ‘composite bat’ to a ‘smart bat’, with technology placed inside the blade to allow players to find out how hard they have hit the ball, and how pure their swing is.
‘Maybe 2027 or 2028 is when we start to integrate that technology within the bat,’ he says. ‘Then you’ve got a product that not only can be used by players, but can be linked up with coaches. Golf has been doing that for the last four or five years, and we’re still playing catch-up.’
There are no winners when Indian politics seep into cricket
What point exactly do India’s politicians think they’re making by instructing their cricketers not to shake hands with their Pakistani opponents – first at the men’s Asia Cup in the UAE, and now at the women’s World Cup in India and Sri Lanka?
Because from the perspective of a neutral, it simply makes them look petty, which is presumably not the impact they intend.
India captain Suryakumar Yadav (left) and his Pakistan counterpart Salman Agha did not shake hands ahead of the recent Asia Cup match in the United Arab Emirates
If India have a grievance, they should follow through with their conviction and refuse to play Pakistan at all – despite the unthinkable consequences this would have for the world game.
No one wants this. But when the world’s most powerful cricket nation nakedly advertises its obedience to Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, winding up their arch rival then hammering them when they react under provocation, no one wins.
Labuschagne in the runs as he seeks Ashes spot
The start of Australia’s Sheffield Shield feels reassuringly like the start of England’s county championship, with Test places up for grabs and every run and wicket squeezed dry for significance.
Marnus Labuschagne looks for a quick single as his Queensland side take on Tasmania this week in the Sheffield Shield
The Australian celebrates reaching three figures, albeit against a moderate Tasmania attack. But the runs will help in his bid to win back his Test place for the Ashes
An early name in the spotlight is Marnus Labuschagne, who was finally dropped by Australia’s Test team after scores of 17 and 22 in the World Test Championship final against South Africa at Lord’s in June, but is regarded by some as good to go for the Ashes after scoring 130 in a one-day game for Queensland against Victoria, then making a red-ball 160 against a moderate Tasmanian attack.
More than one England bowler will be cheering on his progress.
A good win for England - but let's not crown them yet
England’s 10-wicket win over a strangely hopeless South Africa in the fourth match of the women’s World Cup in South Asia was a welcome response to a harrowing year.
But talk of recovery should be on hold unless they reach the final (where the almighty Australians would probably be lying in wait).
