Why is willow used for cricket bats

This is an Inside Science story. The crack of a bat as it strikes a ball is the sound of summer in both the United States and the United Kingdom , albeit from a different sport in each -- baseball in one, cricket in the other. The sound itself is also subtly different in each country because the two sports use different woods in their differently shaped bats. The reasons for this are mostly to do with history and tradition you'd be hard-pressed to find two sports more wrapped up in their traditions than these ones , but there are solid performance-related reasons as well.

Baseball bats have gone through a few changes over the years. In the early days of the sport, the bats tended to be much heavier than they are today and were made out of dense woods like hickory. Over the course of the 20th century, however, ash became the dominant wood for bats, because it offers a good balance of weight, swing speed and durability, said Lloyd Smith, a mechanical engineer at Washington State University.

The most important variable in a batter's swing, particularly when it comes to hitting home runs, is the speed of the swing, which players can improve by either getting stronger or using a lighter bat. A heavier bat is better for hitting the ball a long distance because it generates more kinetic energy than a lighter one does, but that comes at the expense of control -- it may be easier to make contact with a lighter bat since the player can swing it more easily.

In a game where even the best hitters still miss two-thirds of the time, the ability to hit the ball at all is just as important as the ability to hit it far. Shoulderless bats: Slazenger introduced the concept of shoulderless blades in s for lighter pick-up and better weight redistribution to the sweet spot.

Mongoose bat: Mongoose MMi3 bats have short blades and long handles. It was primarily designed for more six hitting, and less for defensive shots, in the T20 format. Mathew Hayden used the bat in the IPL season. Scoop bat: Gary Nicolls introduced the concept of "Super Scoop" bat, which involved scooping of a portion of the wood from the backside of the bat and allocating more wood on the edges.

In the digital age, it is possible to understand the data behind every shot played on the cricket bat. This data can then be then analyzed to understand the nuances that would be required for effective shot making against different bowlers and bowling conditions.

It helps the batsman to understand and analyze the metrics that powers a proper cricketing shot, including bat speed, twist on the bat, ball impact location on the bat, and power generated on the shot. Cricket bat design: The oldest Cricket bat that is on display at the Oval in London traces back to , and has very close resemblance to that of a hockey stick.

This supply challenge is exacerbated by the fact that the demand for cricket bats is increasing. My recent study , undertaken with the help of my colleagues Ben Tinkler-Davies and Michael H Ramage, has identified and tested bamboo as an exciting alternative to willow bats. Cricket bats are sometimes made using other hardwoods, plastics, aluminium or a composite of materials — but these bats are for leisure and non-professional games, or for training and coaching. The production of cricket bats for professional use remains overwhelmingly reliant on dwindling supplies of willow.

Bamboo has for some time been mooted as an alternative to willow. Compared with willow, bamboo takes a third of the time to mature, it absorbs more carbon during growth, and can be harvested multiple times over 30 years before requiring replanting.

Willow trees, on the other hand, need replanting after every harvest. Perhaps most importantly, it does all this while being incredibly light. A first-of-its kind study, done by the Australian National University, has actually sought to put all this in scientific terms.

The lead researcher, Dr. Mohammad Saadatfar, speaks about the specific characteristics of willow which make it ideal. The purpose of this study was to find a cheap replacement timber for use in cricket bats, but, as of yet, the results are nowhere to be found. Before we go on, you may be thinking: what about materials besides wood? Lasting just four balls, and one hit, the umpires told Lillee to abandon the bat following a complaint from the English captain Mike Brearley.

Brearley asserted that it had damaged the ball: an assertion later to be proved false. Well, the English have always claimed the monopoly on that, and the Marylebone Cricket Club our spiritual leaders were prompt. They advised the ICC to revise the laws of cricket so that a bat could only be made of timber: law 6.

Another law of note is law 6. Effectively, these law changes, and the generally better quality of English willow, mean that the only material used by serious cricketers is English-grown cricket-bat willow. Of course, as populations grow and demand for this product increases, we are left with the only possible conclusion: strained supply and increased cost.

The strain is such that J. Well, we know that Kashmiri willow is generally inferior.