BATS AND PROTECTIVE GEAR
Just to round off my advice on the best ways of preparing for the business part of the game – when you actually have to play the ball – let me explain about the weight of bat I use and the different forms of protective gear that are now available.
Until about 1980, I used a normal weight bat, around two and a half pounds; but after trying a heavier one as an experiment, I immediately loved it and those made for me now by the Worcestershire Chairman, Duncan Fearnley, are nearly three pounds in weight.
But again, everyone should find out for themselves what is most suitable. As a general rule, most young players start off with a bat that is too heavy for them, because they are given their first bat when they are growing up.
Only try the heavy bats, therefore, when you have more or less finished your physical development. Undoubtedly, more players nowadays favour the bigger bats, and cricket has followed golf and tennis in this respect.
Racquets now have bigger heads for more power, and golf clubs are designed to hit the ball further. In the same way the bigger cricket bat is so much more destructive than the old-fashioned lightweight ones.
It is not the weight of the bat which is important: it is how balanced the pick-up is which settles which is the better bat, and sometimes I tinker around with one or two extra rubber grips to achieve a better balance.
Usually I have a couple of grips on, but although it can be one, or even on occasions three, it is very rare nowadays that I have to change one of Duncan’s bats. He usually presents them to me at about an ounce or so under three pounds, and then if necessary I vary the number of grips.
At the start of an innings on a quick pitch, I will usually take out the lighter bat when I am not looking to play too many shots; so don’t be afraid to change, even in the middle of an innings. Some players develop superstitions about their cricket in general and their bats in particular, but I don’t go along with that.
I always believe that I can make my own luck. So if I find out any of the opposition are superstitious, I try all the harder to convince them how unlucky they are.
Regarding protective equipment, I only use either a helmet or a forearm guard if the pitch is dodgy, because in normal conditions I reckon I should never get hit if I keep both eyes on the ball. But on a pitch like, for instance, Headingley in 1987 in the Test match we lost to Pakistan, I did use an arm guard and a helmet because of the variable bounce – but that is the exception for me.
It is not because I share the view that a player’s reactions are subconsciously slower if he is wearing a helmet, because the risk of serious injury is reduced. I suppose my dislike of using that sort of visible protection is the same as my good friend Viv Richards, who never ever wears a helmet. It is another way of saying to the bowler that he is not that quick or dangerous, and I will never ignore any opportunity to score a psychological point.
SUMMARY
To sum up my tips on grip, stance and back-lift – anything within reason will suffice, providing that whatever you do that is different from the normal methods, is not detrimental to your batting.
If things start to go wrong, and a string of low scores follow, go right back and re-examine your basics. Often, a tiny little adjustment is all that is necessary, and sometimes the most unlikely people can spot it for you.
All that I have explained so far is to show how simple the game is, once a repetitive method has been found.
Plenty of power from my Duncan Fearnley custom manufactured bat.
SECRETS OF BATTING
I have repeatedly stressed so far the importance of cutting out unnecessary movement, and the time to concentrate hardest on standing absolutely still is when the ball is about to be delivered.
Some players never really think about when to start picking the bat up. They do it at the same moment in the bowler’s delivery stride, whether it is a fast bowler or a spinner. Then they wonder why they are halfway through a stroke – only for the wicket-keeper to be tossing the ball back to the fast bowler. It is only common sense to quicken the pickup against the paceman, and to wait just that bit longer against a slow bowler.
The vital difference between the average player and the good player, and the good player and the great batsman, is the apparent extra time the better players have to play their strokes. I will explain why this is not quite true, just as the theory that the great players play the ball later than other batsmen is only partly correct.
Both differences can be explained quite simply. That extra available time and the lateness of selection of stroke come because players like Viv Richards and Allan Border avoid any significant first movement of the feet when they start to pick the bat up.
If ever there is one real secret of batting, that is it. Even they cannot stand absolutely stock still, but whatever first movement either player makes is so small that it does not cut down his range of options to the same degree as with ordinary batsmen.
The sort of movement which is too early and too much is at the root of most batting faults, and I strongly advise the following check exercise being carried out regularly by all batsmen, no matter at what level they play the game.
At the start of a net session, ask the bowlers to help you by, without any warning, running in to bowl to you as normal but, instead of releasing the ball, to go right through with their usual action without letting the ball go. Just look at what you have done with your feet, and all will be revealed. Most English players tend to move their front foot forward as they pick the bat up just before the moment of delivery. This is because of our slower pitches. Conversely, the first movement of overseas cricketers tends to be either back or across their crease. This is because of the quicker nature of their pitches, and the extra bounce bowlers can obtain from the additional pace.
Next time you watch a big game, try to spot the first foot movement of the better players, and you will soon find that most English right-handers will have committed themselves to the front foot, by moving that left one at least 18 inches.
The disadvantage is obvious because they have reduced by the same distance how far on the back foot they can go, should the bowler decide the time is right to let a short one go.
This is another reason why we always struggle against the really fast bowlers, because they can only be coped with satisfactorily on the back foot. English cricket, because of its generally paceless pitches, does not produce many effective back foot players, and it never has. The number of batsmen in the last 20 years who could whack it off the back foot, are few and far between. Just think of our best batsmen in that time: Colin Cowdrey, Peter May, Tom Graveney, Kenny Barrington, Geoff Boycott, Graham Gooch, David Gower and so on.
Of course, they were good enough batsmen to cope with the short ball, and even on occasions score runs off the back foot against the real quicks. But most of them were much more fluent when driving, because that is how they learned their cricket.
The obvious exception was Ted Dexter. I didn’t see much of him, but I am told that he stood stiller than most, and was equally happy to hook and cut, as well as drive. David Gower is another, although it must help that he is left-handed, and therefore playing to a different line.
Graham Gooch can also pull and cut with tremendous authority at times, but generally he looks to play forward if he can.
So try that test – have a look at where you have committed yourself to, and remember you’ve done