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[Cover_Drive]

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."

[joeljonno]

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.

[The Palmist]

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.

[Dan W]

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).

[patriotscreen]

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.

[MD2812]

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)