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The study generated global media coverage, particularly in the United Kingdom, India and Australia. Because laminated bamboo is so strong, we’re very confident we can make a bamboo bat light enough, even for today’s fast-scoring, short forms of the game.” Tinkler-Davies says: “Our first prototype bat is 40% heavier than most full-size willow cricket bats so we now need to work out the optimum design to reduce that. The researchers now hope to enter into discussions with the MCC and leading bat manufacturers. So if we can go back to having thinner blades but made from bamboo, while improving performance, outreach and sustainability, then why not?” The width and thickness of bats have changed dramatically over the decades. To those left feeling “It’s just not cricket”, Shah says: “Tradition is really important but think about how much cricket bats, pads, gloves and helmets have already evolved. Working with a local cricket bat manufacturer, Garrard & Flack, the researchers made a full-size bamboo bat prototype.īen Tinkler-Davies demonstrates the sound of leather on bamboo The use of cane in cricket has been limited to bat handles and pads. In the nineteenth century, cricket bat makers experimented with various types of wood but from the 1890s, they settled on the sapwood of Salix Alba, a light coloured willow, for the blade as it offered high stiffness, low density and visual appeal. We’ve identified a golden opportunity to achieve that while also helping lower income countries to produce bats at lower cost.” Test match: Willow v Bamboo The researchers believe that high performance, low-cost production and increased sustainability could make bamboo cricket bats a viable and ethical alternative to willow.Ĭo-author Ben Tinkler-Davies says: “Cricket brings you really close to nature, you spend hours out in the field, but I think the sport can do a lot more for the environment by promoting sustainability. We’d just need to adjust our technique to make the most of it, and the bat’s design requires a little optimisation too.” “The sweet-spot on a bamboo bat makes it much easier to hit a four off a Yorker for starters, but it’s exciting for all kinds of strokes. “This is a batsman’s dream”, says co-author, Dr Darshil Shah, a former member of Thailand’s under-19 national cricket team. This sweet-spot was about 20 mm wide and 40 mm long, significantly larger than on a typical willow bat, and better still, was positioned closer to the toe (12.5 cm from the toe at its sweetest point). Perhaps most excitingly, they found that the sweet-spot on their prototype bamboo blade performed 19% better than that on a traditional willow bat.
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When the team compared the effect of this ‘knock-in’ process on both materials, they found that after five hours bamboo’s surface hardness had increased to twice that of pressed willow. The researchers also found that bamboo is 22% stiffer than willow which also increases the speed at which the ball leaves the bat.ĭuring manufacture, the surface of cricket bats is compressed to create a hardened layer. This would help batsmen as lighter blades can be swung faster to transfer more energy to the ball. The study, published in The Journal of Sports Engineering and Technology, shows that bamboo is significantly stronger – with a strain at failure more than three times greater – than willow and able to hold much higher loads, meaning that bats made with bamboo could be thinner while remaining as strong as willow. Ben Tinkler-Davies with the prototype bamboo bat