Custom Bats Cricket Forum
Equipment => Bats => Topic started by: Hayden2012 on August 27, 2013, 10:56:20 PM
-
Hi guys,
Continuing on with my last post in relation to misleading advertising , does any player actually use off the rack bats ?
I know this may come across trivial but it isn't.A cricket bat is a large investment, therefore it should be what the manufacturer claims it go be, that is as used by a player.Obviously not this exact bat in your hand , but it should come off the exact same rack as what the player chooses from, exact to the millimetre, exact same wood.
Lets be fair here , when bat makers say " as used" it should be exactly the same.
Within Australia , the trade practices act forbids misleading advertising.Clearly a players using willow ,even a different shape to that of a rack bat is Wrong.It makes no difference whether a business intended to mislead you or not. If the overall impression left by a business’s advertisement, promotion, quotation, statement or other representation creates a misleading impression in your mind—such as to the price, value or the quality of any goods and services—then the behaviour is likely to breach the law.
Personally I think this practice needs to stop- it is the consumer who is missing out big time. A product has to be what it says it is, can u imagine the outcry if someone came and said that the bat they use is nowhere near the bat thousands of mislead consumers have been buying.Fairness goes both ways .
-
the majority of pro's dont use the bats they are stickered up with. Is just how it is, they have their private bat makers who know exactly what they want. Might be misleading but everyone knows this so i dont think there is an outcry here
-
You would be surprised how many people don't know, and regardless of whether its acceptable or not it is wrong!
-
Al very well, but you can buy the exact same bat that Cook users from GN. It will just cost you £500. Alternatively you can buy one that looks the same for between £80 and £350....
-
Ian Bells bat with Menace stickers on it is a Menace, by very definition. Everyone knows it isn't an off the shelf Menace as the shape is different, but it's not like he is using Gray Nicolls while Kook claim he is using one of their products.
It would be very difficult to prove that pros do not use the same quality as normal players, wood is a natural substance after all.
The manufacturers say 'as used by' when they associate a player with a range of bat. e.g. Cook uses the Oblivion, they don't say he uses an Oblivion LE, or a 4 Star, just an Oblivion. Conceivably, any bat with Oblivion stickers on it meets their claim.
It happens in plenty of other sports too.
The gloves i used to get from Selsport when i was a goalkeeper in the academies/reserves of a couple of football league clubs were a different world compared to the gloves you can buy in shops. Much much softer latex palms that lasted me 4 or 5 games maximum. An off the shelf goalkeeper glove is made of a harder compound, intended to last for a season at least. Similar story with football boots. It's quite well known that Beckham's Adidas Predators were not made from the same material as the Predators everyone buys.
-
The only player I know that ever used an off the rack bat was Bradman, I know that's the fact because I have seen the bat- he walked into a store picked the bat, then went and made over 200 with it , a wizard !
-
Is a valid point that, i think that unless you actually get handed a bat from a pro's kit bag you will never get the same bats as the pro's...
-
Michael Vaughan said he used off the shelf bats in matches.
-
I think nowadays you've got to think of a bat used by a professional as a billboard. It's simply a vehicle for manufactures to get their brand seen in the media. For example the Eng cricket shirt has a Vodafone sign on it, doesn't mean it is a mobile phone! You also find the wording by advertisers to be 'endorsed by' which to me doesn't mean they use said bat.
-
Tom who used to work for Mongoose said that some pros get special treatment (Tresco); others get sent off the shelf to use as they saw fit.
-
Went to Hawk last year and they showed me a top of the range adidas pellara and KP's match bat that were both in for repair. There was no comparison, KP's bat was much bigger and yet far lighter. I wouldn't be too happy if I'd shelled out £300+ for the inferior off the shelf bat. If they expect us to pay that much it should be fairly close at the very least.
-
The only player I know that ever used an off the rack bat was Bradman, I know that's the fact because I have seen the bat- he walked into a store picked the bat, then went and made over 200 with it , a wizard !
I would love to hear this story in full detail.
-
I think I read that Beckham had a new pair for every game.
-
Another one who definitely used them from the rack was Freddie Flintoff - remember seeing him take the plastic wrapping off one as he walked out to bat!
-
Another one who definitely used them from the rack was Freddie Flintoff - remember seeing him take the plastic wrapping off one as he walked out to bat!
When he broke his bat against South Africa I remember they ran about 6 bats out to him, all still in the plastic. He just grabbed one and took the plastic off. Clearly he wasn't the fussiest with his bats.
And in answer to the original question I think Swanny uses off the shelf bats.
-
I firmly believe that the bats majority of us buy are just as good as the ones players use. I have gotten hold of few Test cricketer bats and honestly they aren't "overly spectacular" as we tend to think they are.
An adage, "it's the batsman, not the bat."
-
When you say "player", do you mean professional?
When you say "off the rack", do you mean from a shop rather than custom made?
If you are talking about the everyday Joe who is posting on this site, I would say most use shop bought bats. You label "off the shelf" bats as a bad thing, and if they were so poor, you would see a bigger custom-made trade.
If someone said, I want to buy a GM because Trott uses a GM, then says I want a NB bat because he has moved will probably know/notice the similarities in the bats and probably not buy one just because of that. You might get the I like that bat Trott uses, so I will look at them.
Whereas I quite like the look of the bat Joe Root uses, even though it might be (or have been) of Asian origin. I would still buy his GM if it is a good deal.
Going back to buying "off the rack" products, just because it is in a shop from a major brand, doesn't mean it is bad. Look at some of the handpicked bats at IJC or Vitas and you will know they are worthy of the money.
-
I think I read that Beckham had a new pair for every game.
Unless he hires someone to break in his shoes, he would end up with Blisters every game.
-
When he broke his bat against South Africa I remember they ran about 6 bats out to him, all still in the plastic. He just grabbed one and took the plastic off. Clearly he wasn't the fussiest with his bats.
And in answer to the original question I think Swanny uses off the shelf bats.
I still don't think that means they were not borrowed from the local Sports R Us. Some pro's are really ambivalent about the source of their bat (KP for starters).
-
At the end of the day willow is a natural material, so surely so long as mass manufacturers are purchasing good quality wood there is no reason why their bats cannot be as good as someone who makes them by hand.
There are probably bats that come out of Julian Millichamp's workshop that will perform just as well as a GM.
A custom batmaker doesn't have exclusive access to better willow that a big company. It's mainly down to the person on the end of the handle. I have seen some batsmen make £20 bats look amazing before, wood that is painted to mask the imperfections and blemishes, or because they have less than 4 grains.
-
Ronnie O'Sullivan won most his career titles with a £30 snooker cue. He stopped using it when British Airways broke it in transportation! I wonder if they offered him £30 compensation.
I know it's not cricket, but that would be the equivilent of Tendulkar going out with a off the Shelf MSR £70 special!
It's quite interesting to hear about how players differ with their bats. Strauss used to ask GN for 4, he would play with them all in the nets initially and work out his favourite. He'd then use #1 only in tests, whilst netting with 2, 3 and 4 and work out which one would replace his match bat should it break.
Compton on the other hand had GN send him 40 bats, he then picked the ones he liked and returned the others. I wonder if he had to return a set number. (This might explain why there are quite a few kicking about on ebay)