Hi all,
A request for help (with a VERY long explanation ...)
I write articles for Cricinfo on the side, on anything that pretty much piques my interest at the time. I recently wrote one regarding the evolution of the cricket bat over the past few hundred years (
http://www.espncricinfo.com/blogs/content/story/1080665.html) and this article has garnered more feedback and communication than almost anything else I've done. There was some sections that were unfortunately edited out of this first article, and while I was initially looking to do a simple follow-up to include those parts, it has started to expand into a full research project. This is where I would love to get the input and advice of the members / manufacturers here.
Prior to researching that article, I had never come across the phrase "English willow nurtured in India" before. This prompted me to start thinking about exploring the different types of bat timber. The question I have been left with is:
What is the performance difference between English willow grown in England, versus English willow grown elsewhere (Australia, India, Canada etc) versus Kashmir willow? Is it possible to quantify this difference in any meaningful way? And if so, how do the performance differences relate to the price?I am in the process of establishing a small research project to try and do some initial comparisons. In the non-cricket world, I am an academic/researcher at an Australian university (although in Medicine / Public Health and not sports science), and have started some preliminary discussions with our Science and Technology gurus in terms of thinking about what testing and measurements (cross-sectional analysis of the wood, acoustic properties, rebound characteristics, 3D video-capture etc) they could do that would be appropriate. That would constitute stage 2 of the testing.
What I would like to do in stage 1 is to undertake a subjective trial of at least five different bats made out of: Grade 1 English willow, Grade 4 English willow (both grown in England), Australian willow, English willow nurtured in India, and Kashmir. The purpose of this first stage is to gain input from actual end-users on how they perceive each of the bats. I would recruit a group of 20 local first-grade cricketers to trial each of the bats and to then rate each bat on pre-determined criteria (such as feel, performance, acoustics etc) using a five-point Likert scale. The tests would be done in indoor nets with a bowling machine to ensure that all tests are undertaken under similar conditions and with equivalent striking opportunity. The goal is to see whether batsmen can genuinely distinguish between the different bats, and if so, how do they rate the various timbers. This will then guide the second stage of testing.
In order to make this first stage as fair as possible, the starting points are:
- All bats would need to be new at commencement, and broken in in accordance with the manufacturer recommendations.
- It would be a double-blind trial (where neither the experimenter nor participant know which bat is which until after the testing is complete).
- Each bat needs to be the same weight, have the same grip, and approximately the same profile.
- The bats need to be covered entirely, so that the colour and grains of the timber cannot be seen.
- Each batsman would face 10 balls with each bat. Player 1 would start with bat 1, then bat 2, 3,4 and 5. Player 2 would start with bat 2, then 3,4,5 and 1. Player 3 starts with with bat 3, then 4,5,1 and 2. And so on.
- It would be ideal to get the same manufacturer to make all five bats, but this is probably not feasible.
I realise that this research has a number of fairly fundamental flaws that I may not be able to overcome. In particular, there is naturally considerable variation in the performance of grade 1 English willow, so trying to fairly compare between the different types of timber is even more problematic. But, I am still keen to try
If you are willing to help me out with this project, can you please let me know either via pm or a message below? A simple response of "I'm in" would suffice. A formal acknowledgement for CustomBats, manufacturers and forum members would naturally be provided.
I am happy to provide a link to my Cricinfo articles and academic research outputs to indicate the genuineness of this proposal (although it won't take a lot of detective work for people to work out who I am if they really care).
CLIFF Notes:
Australian researcher looking for assistance in a research project looking at cricket bat performance. If interested in helping, please put a response below
Author
Topic: Request for assistance: Research into willow (Read 7522 times)