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[ItsJustCricket]

Morning Guys,

As some of you will be aware, we now have a small stock of CA bats in our store (video reviews went live in the early hours of the morning - yes I work that late sometimes!) Since shooting those videos I have noticed that the blade length of these bats is shorter than an SH, despite being apparently SH bats.  I have also heard that the blade width is supposed to be narrower as well.  I understand that this is a cunning way to keep the weights down, as these bats are all miraculously big for their weight, but I want to know if this is true across the board with all CA bats? And, for those of you who have used CA bats before, how has this shorter blade affected your game? Were you made aware of the shorter blade before purchasing? We currently have them listed as SH online, but I'm thinking of maybe changing this now?!

Finally, I am thinking of shooting a follow up video review to prove the difference in length and width of the CA bats compared to regular SH bats.  I don't really want to ruffle any feathers though - especially as we've only just started stocking the brand (and we don't actually deal with CA directly).  Would this be a good idea, or not?

I know that's quite a lot of questions in one, but this is important to us in how we market and promote the brand, so I would really appreciate some advice and feedback from those with experience of CA!

Cheers,
Paul

[simonmay5]

Hi Paul my friend had a ca like that last year and the blade was around half inch shorter and width was only 9.9 so I know they do take weight in this way

[Vitas Cricket]

I re-bind the handles on loads of brand new CA bats, given to me fresh out the plastic after being imported from back home by Pakistanis living in Peterborough. So the first thing I would do is roll the grip up and check for shoddy binding.

They are always narrower, this is how they get such a big bat for the claimed weight. The other thing is the weight sticker on the edge is never accurate.

I've seen plenty with a shorter blade, not all of them are though. They almost always have a slightly longer handle in them to compensate for the shorter blade, similar to the Kook t20. I've only ever seen one 'SH' that I would say was actually a small men's/academy bat.

Like many Pakistani brands, consistency and finishing aren't top of the list of priorities. They do seem to fly from ball one, how long they last is anyone's guess. Also the 'fully knocked in' stickers are laughable. I've seen a lot of 15000 LE's recently with razor sharp edges, they are about as knocked in as our coffee table.

[Uzi Sports]

In my view from Pakistan, CA and Ihsan produce the best quality bats. The handles are much better on Ihsan than CA but we never had any problems with both brands. All the bats we sold last year, we had one CA returned for re-handling. I believe there is a difference in quality what they export and what they sell in local market. I know a lot of professional players use their bats with their sponsered stickers.
The blade length is definite an issue as Paul has pointed out correctly. when we order, We have to specify that they need to make full length bats for us. we do also have slightly shorter length blade bats which suits a lot of players with shorter height.

[tushar sehgal]

Most CA bats that I have seen are narrower or shorter and in some cases both.

[ItsJustCricket]

I re-bind the handles on loads of brand new CA bats, given to me fresh out the plastic after being imported from back home by Pakistanis living in Peterborough. So the first thing I would do is roll the grip up and check for shoddy binding.

They are always narrower, this is how they get such a big bat for the claimed weight. The other thing is the weight sticker on the edge is never accurate.

I've seen plenty with a shorter blade, not all of them are though. They almost always have a slightly longer handle in them to compensate for the shorter blade, similar to the Kook t20. I've only ever seen one 'SH' that I would say was actually a small men's/academy bat.

Like many Pakistani brands, consistency and finishing aren't top of the list of priorities. They do seem to fly from ball one, how long they last is anyone's guess. Also the 'fully knocked in' stickers are laughable. I've seen a lot of 15000 LE's recently with razor sharp edges, they are about as knocked in as our coffee table.

I checked them this morning, and it's a strange one.  If you include the handles, they are slightly longer than the Newbery 7even, but still slightly shorter than a SH bat.  They seem to be a whole new size altogether - the one between academy/SSH and SH! The blade is the same length as the Newbery 7even.

And completely true about the knocking in, Jake - I spoke about this in the videos too...

[EaglesCC]

Like many Pakistani brands, consistency and finishing aren't top of the list of priorities. They do seem to fly from ball one, how long they last is anyone's guess. Also the 'fully knocked in' stickers are laughable. I've seen a lot of 15000 LE's recently with razor sharp edges, they are about as knocked in as our coffee table.

Just a theory but this points to the bats being made by many different people rather than a handful of specific bat makers. Not saying that is necessarily a bad thing but I find it odd that a company as established as CA doesn't understand why prospective buyers would look for consistency and that not everyone buys a bat by going into a shop and trying it out...