It's not cricket as Australians invent better bat - World A-Team Cricket Forum

draexem · #1 (**permalink**) 09-05-2007, 02:35 AM

Quote:

It hardly seems fair after the World Cup and the Ashes, but all-conquering Australia is developing a high-tech cricket bat enabling its big hitters to wallop the ball even further.

As if the world champions were not formidable enough, Australian experts are hard at work designing a "smart" bat.

By reducing vibration in the handle by up to 42 per cent, the Smart Cricket Bat will enable players to strike the ball without fear of strain or injury.

The secret weapon is being developed by the School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at RMIT University, Melbourne.

Its innovative handle is equipped with electro-mechanical sensors and a vibration-absorbing synthetic material which converts shockwaves into heat and dampens vibration.

Consisting of a carbon fibre shell with a polymer insert, it employs technology called active vibration control which is already used in baseball bats and tennis racquets.

That increases the size of the bat's "sweet spot" - the zone in which the batsman experiences the least discomfort when smashing the ball towards the boundary.

"The big push for this is players who want a bit of technology in the bat and it would make them feel slightly better when the ball hits the bat away from the sweet spot," said Prof Sabu John, an RMIT expert in "intelligent" materials and the leader of the project. Prof John, a former research fellow at Imperial College, in London, told The Australian newspaper that the bat was being developed in conjunction with the manufacturer Kookaburra Sport and could be on sale within 18 months.

But a further £240,000 was needed before it could be manufactured on commercial levels, he said.

It is expected to cost about £40 more than the most expensive bats currently on the market, which are between £200 and £250 in Australia.

While tennis racquets and golf clubs are made of materials such as carbon fibre and titanium, cricket's archaic laws insist that bats can only be made from wood.

Prof John believes that he has found a loophole which would enable him to get around this: the restrictions apply to the bat's blade but not the handle. "As far as we know, it's legal," he said.

A spokesman for Cricket Australia declined to comment.

link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.../09/wbat09.xml

When are people going to work on providing better balls for bowlers, instead of better bats for batsmen

!

I hope the ICC will ban this, and quickly.

Karthik

I guess nothing can be done to the people who manufacture bats.Bowling can't get easier no matter what ball is used.The only option left is the pitch.The ICC must give instructions to the ground staff about making the pitches more bowler friendly.But I doubt that it will make much of a difference.Power hitters would clear the fence anyways.I guess thats what the crowd wants - both teams to score big runs.

Quagmire

I did not know that Gray Nicholls was only used by Australian's. Only one Gray Nicholls bat has the carbon fibre handle which I have on my bat which just makes it a little bit lighter and it doesnt make you hit the ball harder it just makes the bat lighter to help your bat speed. Australia smashed everyone in the World Cup and punished England because they had the best players they did not win for any other reason.

Rachael · 07:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quagmire

Only one Gray Nicholls bat has the carbon fibre handle which I have on my bat which just makes it a little bit lighter and it doesnt make you hit the ball harder it just makes the bat lighter to help your bat speed.

Surely one chooses a light bat in order to be able to CHECK one's shot (and adjust when realising one's playing too early / the wrong line): when the ball is there to be hit and the batsman is happy to hit through the line... the batsman is as well off with a very heavy bat!

The point of this bat, however, is extending the sweet spot... and that needs stopping: small sweet-spots are crucial to the sport... being about the only thing that gives bowlers a chance!

Seamer

Australia is at the forefront of many technological advances in the world right and this is just another example. Can't blame us for being clever

Younis Khan #1

It is not about being clever, it is about respecting the values of the sport.

Occasional Fan

I don't think it's about either. It's just a fact of life that technology will always advance and people will always find a way to do whatever they do a bit more easily or a bit more effectively or a bit more efficiently or a combination of all three. This is called progress and it is what will make aircraft greener over times to come, just as it made wheels rounder in times gone by. We can't stop it happening. In cricket, though, we can legislate against specific things - it would be straightforward for the MCC and/or the ICC to legislate that the whole of the bat must be made of wood, for example. But if you do that, someone will start trying to find out which type of wood gives him an edge over the willow; and if you say only willow can be used, you'll find someone who will develop a specific type of genetically enhanced willow which grows its branches in cricket bat shapes which have huge sweet spots from the time the branches begin to sprout.

Make whatever laws you like: there will always be someone looking for a loophole or a new development - heck! I would be without a job if chartered accountants were not allowed to look for tax efficient business methods (and Gordon Brown hasn't completely stopped us from doing that yet, because he simply can't - though he's trying pretty hard!). And where would we be if Frank Whittle had not been allowed to develop a jet engine, George Stephenson an efficient steam locomotive or Leonardo Da Vinci a pretty good draft of a helicopter? Back in the caves banging the rocks together to try to make a fire, that's where!

We've just got to get used to it: progress is a good thing - even if it sometimes gives us effects which we don't like. The right response is not to stop the progress of the bat; but to put some effort into the development of the ball.

Quagmire · 11:22 PM

I think that Australia have Superbatsman not Superbats, when a team has Ponting, Gilchrist, Hayden and Symonds in the side they are going to hit the ball harder than a team like England or Sri Lanka that don't have quality big hitters

acker

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quagmire

I think that Australia have Superbatsman not Superbats, when a team has Ponting, Gilchrist, Hayden and Symonds in the side they are going to hit the ball harder than a team like England or Sri Lanka that don't have quality big hitters

I'll go a step further than that. I dont think it is coincidence that three of the teams that played in the World Cup semi finals are from countries who's predominent winter sports are full on body contact sports. Most players from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa would have been exposed to full on body contact sports as children and beyond. Hence a greater percentage of them probably developed advanced upper body strength earlier in their carreer as opposed to those countries who's major predominent winter sport is a partial body contact sport such as "soccer".
Also New Zealand, Australia and South Africa due to having predominently full on body contact sports have a lot more coaches, conditioners, and facilities suited more for upper body development in their countries available within easy access to a vast majority of them as opposed to those countries who's major sport is a partial body contact sport which would more likely have more coaches, conditioners and facilities suited for lower body strength and speed.
New Zealand, Australia and South Africa also have probably the best source of extremely well funded information and technology advancement available to them in full on body contact sports and upper body strength. And a greater number of specialists in that feild (just due to the participation rates) who can easilly access that information and implement it into training. The source and funding of that advanced information being proffesional full on contact sports science from the USA. Also a country who's predominent winter sport is full on body contact, and also the country that has the most commercial funding available to develop the science relating to it.
I am sure all countries have players working on their upper body strength and using purpose built facilities and specialist coaches and conditioners.
Its just that the players from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa enjoy a big head start, starting at a much younger age and having more specialists and facilities in more areas getting to more people due to their choice of a favorite winter sport.
FYI in order of national interest IMHO
Australia: Australian Rules, Rugby League, Soccer/ Rugby Union, Basketball....
New Zealand : Rugby Union, Rugby League, Soccer, Basketball.....
South Africa : Rugby Union/Soccer....
England : Soccer, Rugby Union, Rugby League ??

Quagmire

Plus most Westerners are natuarally larger than a lot of the Asian pleople (not being raciest but the majority of asian are smaller is build and height)

Another reason why Australia is so good at a lot of sports for a country that has just 20 million people, is that Australian's have an outdoor life style and a lot of the country men and even young boys are huge men because of there lifestyle with good enviroment, top quality foods and hard physical labour helps develop strength and all round fitness along with Australian Rules Football, both forms of Rugby and other full contact sports.
Matthew Hayden is from a country town called Kingaroy in Queensland which is the Peanut Capital of Australia and look at the size of him.

Taken out of Glenn McGraths Cric Info bio

Quote:

The young Glenn McGrath was described by Mike Whitney as "thin - but Ambrose-thin, not Bruce Reid-thin". Much later, Mike Atherton compared McGrath to Ambrose on a vaster scale. Catapulted from the outback of New South Wales into Test cricket to replace Merv Hughes in 1993, McGrath became, after a faltering start, the great Australian paceman of his time.

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