Bat (cricket)

“ The subject to be dealt with in this chapter is the most fascinating and delightful part of cricket. No persuasion will be required on my part to induce any one who has once handled a bat to devote himself heart and soul to the art of batting. A boy or man who needs urging to take a delight in batting is hardly the kind ever to have touched the game at all.
The first thing that strikes one is, that in order to bat well a player must provide himself with a suitable instrument in the shape of a bat. ”

“ A light bat is generally preferred to a heavier one as it meets a swiftly pitched ball with greater promptness. There are nearly as many different modes of handling the bat as there are players. We see some grasping it with the left hand on the handle, and sliding the right swiftly down the bat. Others take the bat near the middle, others swing it with a long sweeping stroke, while still another class hold it as in Cricket, pointing to the ground. ”

“ The delicious thrill of a good stroke is deadened or even entirely destroyed by a hard jarring bat.
With regard to size, boys are strongly advised to use undersized bats. No one should ever use a bat which he cannot wield quite comfortably. The balance of a bat, too, is a very important point. A bat varies in balance according to the distribution of wood in the blade. By holding a bat by the handle with both hands, and lifting it up and down just as when actually playing, any one can feel for himself whether it comes up well or badly. ”

“ The late or back cut is beautiful as well as the safest and most graceful hit in the repertoire of the batsman. But he must posess experience of no mean order to guide the bat to strike the ball, which is moving by him at a double acute angle and usually at a rapid rate; for instead of facing the ball and meeting it with his bat as in the forward and square off cut, he turns his person two-thirds around towards the wicket keeper using his left foot for a pivot. Then he takes a long stride with his right towards short slip, which moves him in the direction of the motion of the ball. ”

“ The difference between the feel of a well- and a badly-balanced bat is most distinct. Cricketers would be wise to acquire the habit of testing the balance of a bat; familiarity with the feel of good bats helps them to make a suitable choice. A player's style is sure to be affected by using unsuitable bats. ”

“ If held in the first way, the bat hides all the wicket, except the outside edges of the off- and leg-stumps; if held in the second way, most of the wicket is disclosed, for part of the bat protrudes beyond the wicket on either side. Again, if the bat is upright, there is the whole length of it up- and down-ways to meet the ball, in case an error be made in judging the exact height the ball rises from the ground after pitching. Playing with a straight bat is not natural—it must be acquired. ”

“ These the cricketer is able to make because the bat is flat and wide, and he holds it both vertically and at a slant, as occasion demands, and is allowed, at his own risk, to run out to meet the ball. In the early days of cricket, a hundred and fifty years ago, the bat was like a baseball club, but curved, and the only strokes then were much what the only baseball strokes are now—the full-strength hit and the stopping hit. So long as the pitcher delivers the ball in the air it is probable that the baseball club will remain as it is ”

“ The bat must strike the ball, not the ball the bat. Even if you block, you can block hard, and the wrists may do a little; so, with a good player this rule admits of no exception. Young players must not think I recommend a flourish, but an exact movement of the bat at the latest possible instant. In playing back to a bail ball, a good player meets the ball, and plays it with a resolute movement of arm and wrist. Pilch is not caught in the attitude of what some call Hanging guard, letting the ball hit his bat dead, once in a season. ”

“ The ball, not being straight, cannot be met with the full face of the bat, and consequently, unless the batsman puts his left leg right across the wicket, he must, in playing it, lift it up in the air, when it is probably captured by cover-point or mid-off. If this ball can be made to go ever so little from the leg side after it has pitched it becomes more deadly, as then there is a much greater chance of the batsman being unable to get over the ball sufficiently to keep it along the ground. ”

“ Miss Wicket, also, carries a curved bat, but it has developed beyond the rustic crooked stick, and more nearly resembles some of the old curved bats at Lord’s, with which a strong man must have hit prodigious skyers. We may doubt if bats were ever such ‘three-man beetles’ as the players in an undated but contemporary picture at Lord’s do fillip withal. The fields, in this curious piece, are all in a line at square-leg, and disappear in a distance unconscious of perspective. ”

“ Almost every stroke he attempts is some form of a pull with a cross bat. Now, the fundamental principle of good safe batting is playing with a straight bat. So that the beginner has to overcome at the outset certain natural tendencies which, though perhaps good in themselves, do not make for good cricket. ”

“ A perfectly new bat sometimes makes a player feel uncomfortable, and so diminishes his usual confidence. Want of confidence leads to the half-hearted play which so often loses a man his wicket. A bat should be kept well oiled, but too much oil should not be put on at once. A well-soaked rag rubbed over the bat two or three times a-week during the summer and twice a-month during the winter is quite sufficient to keep wood in perfect order. Most bats crack to a certain extent through constant contact with the ball. ”

“ If nothing but this ball is bowled over after over, by constant repetition it loses its sting. The batsman gets wary, and when the ball is pitched on his leg side gets before his stumps to protect them, and hangs his bat in front of him, thereby rendering the loss of his wicket extremely improbable; and when it is pitched straight for the middle stump or on the off side, knowing the danger of a hit at the pitch of this ball, he will simply satisfy himself with protecting his stumps with his legs, and with letting the ball pass the off stump without further protest. ”

“ Clean hitting requires a loose aim, the bat held firmly, but not clutched in the hand till the moment of hitting; clumsy gloves are a sad hindrance, the hit is not half so crisp and smart. The bat must be brought forward not only by the free swing of the arm working well from the shoulder, but also by the wrist. ”

“ The player must stand upright, and must especially be careful not to hit the ball before it has passed his body. If he does this off a fast long hop, he will bring off a vulgar sort of stroke, which cannot go so hard as the ball hit later, because there is greater resistance to the bat; in the correct way the bat hits the ball pardy behind it and, as it were, helps it on in its natural course, whereas at the incorrect moment the ball has to be thumped in order to send it in an exactly opposite direction from that in which it is going before meeting the bat. ”

“ It does not bring runs, and it does annoy the spectators. On the other hand, when circumstances make it advisable to use them there seems to be no sufficient reason why batsmen should not play with their legs. It is to be remarked that no one objects to a man playing forward with his leg close to his bat; it is generally understood that by so doing he makes his forward-strokes safer. It is only, when the legs are utilised in such a manner as to obstruct the ball and prevent it hitting the wicket that any outcry is raised. ”

“ I have made it a rule all my life to hit a straight long hop or full-pitch with a straight or nearly straight bat, so that when a ball of this kind was bowled to me I had the full length of my bat to play it with, whereas if I had tried to pull or hit across at it, I should only have had the width of my bat, and should have been more likely to miss it.
When an indifferent bowler is put on, you cannot be too carefiil. He is put on to tempt you to hit, and does not mind how many runs you score off him ”

“ If you have active feet and good shoulders and trunk then you may manage a heavier bat than if you have less active feet and a weaker forearm and wrist. The handle should bend lithely backwards and forwards rather than sideways. It can be made thicker by wash-leather if the hands are moist; and if they are wet, by the rubber covering, which adds over an ounce of weight to the bat and thus helps the blade to rise. The wood of the bat is often found to be cut away from all the bat except just the part with which one hopes to stroke the ball. ”

“ In like manner in back play the youngster puts his right leg up to his bat, and this is an innovation about which it may be said that cricket would be improved if it was no longer the fashion. In fact, the modern idea is that, failing the bat, the legs must protect the wicket; and we say most emphatically that this is against the spirit of the rules and practice of cricket. One hears a batsman who has been given out l.b.w. come away from the wicket and talk as if he were the victim of the greatest hardship. And why? Because he maintains that the ball pitched perhaps an inch off the off stump. ”

“ Over one’s bat comes one’s head: as Abel says, one must get above the ball and smell it. The bat itself, for ground-play, must not be tilted with its blade nearer to the bowler than its handle is, lest a catch be sent up. Its direction from the line when one lifts it before the stroke (see Photo{34}graph II.) , right up to the end of the follow-through (see Photograph VIII.) , must be as straight as possible; like a boxer’s blow straight from the shoulder, and not like the swirling arm of the unskilled navvy, even if both these movements might reach the same goal eventually. ”

“ The bat should meet the ball when opposite the body. I do not say that every hit should be made in this manner; I only say that a perfect hit can be made in no other, and that it should be the aim of the batsman to attain this position of the body as often as he can. Nor is this mere speculation on the scientific principle of batting; it arises from actual observation of the movements of the best batsmen. All good hitters make their hits just at the moment when the ball is opposite the middle of their body. Watch any fine Off-hitter. If he hits to Mid-wicket, his breast is turned to Midwicket ”

“ There are three great difficulties with which young boys have to cope—the regulation size of the ball, the full distance between the wickets, and the full size of the bat. Some attempt has been made to provide them with bats to suit them, but, unfortunately, most small-sized bats are made of inferior wood and are badly shaped. ”

“ It is a somewhat dangerous stroke, for should the ball hang or bump unexpectedly, an uppish hit will in all probability follow.
The square cut sends the ball just behind point, and is made by moving the right foot across the wicket in a line with the off stump; and just as the ball is passing the batsman’s body, the bat is brought down by a quick movement of the arms, while more power is added to the stroke by a sharp flick of the wrists. The bat should be slanting downwards towards the ground, in order to get well over the ball. ”

“ The bat is not drawn across the wicket, but hangs perpendicularly from the wrists; though the wrists of a good player are never idle, but bring the bat to meet the ball a few inches, and the hit is the natural angle formed by the opposing forces. ”

“ A bat should weigh from two pounds to two pounds five ounces. Many young cricketers play with bats far too heavy and long for their strength and height. The length of a boy's bat should vary according to his height. A tall boy might play with a full-size bat if not very heavy, but small boys should play with shorter bats; the blade and handle should be made shorter but not narrower. Some cricketers prefer thick handles and others like thin ones ”

“ The points of difference are chiefly these: (1) the balls must be swift, and bowled along the ground; (2) the batsman must hit—“slog” is the term; and (3) the game is played at a single wicket. Bat, ball, and wickets differ in shape and size from those used in cricket proper. In Father Gerard’s Stonyhurst will be found a detailed account of the game, and a connection is traced between it and a crude form once played at Eton. It is in all probability a survival of very primitive cricket which became stereotyped because of the life of the College abroad. ”

“ And now that the cricketer is fully equipped, so far as dress and safety to limbs are concerned, it is time to refer to those indispensable requisites of the game—bat, ball, and wickets. I have no doubt a number of young enthusiasts will say that they ought to have come first, and that what I have touched upon are small matters in comparison. I know it is the ambition of all youngsters to possess a bat long before they are able to play or to take part in club practice and matches ”

“ The great desire of every beginner is to score runs in good style. This means the cultivation of certain actions which he will find at first are not natural to him. But by continual practice the artificial actions of cricket become second nature. Of course even the most artificial stroke in cricket implies the development of certain natural gifts. That a considerable part of batting consists of unnatural movements of the body can very easily be seen. An absolute beginner, when a bat is first put into his hands, follows the promptings of nature. ”