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Introduction
In some spare time a few years back I began to compile a record of patents relating to cricket bats. I now have a near definitive record for all patents published. Analysis of this data threw up a number of trends and notions around the inventiveness and capacity to invent in cricket playing nations. Some of these are instinctive, and some are revealing.
Bear in mind that this is a brief analysis of patents published. It does not include ideas and inventions or otherwise that were never patented, of which there must be many. The data provided here shows how human invention reveals itself in cricket bats, and I make a connection to their countries of origin. Not being a historian or social scientist I will leave more detailed interpretations and analysis to those with the knowledge to do so. I hope that any who do have this knowledge will share it and improve my own historical knowledge around cricket and creativity.
In total there has been (at least) 107 cricket bat related patents published since 1884. On-line records show 100 patents going back as far as 1894. An additional 7 have been found through research that date from 1884 to 1891. There may be a few more published patents hidden in the archives, although this is unlikely to be more than a handful.
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In October 2008 the Marylebone Cricket Club changed Law 6 of the Laws of Cricket. Law 6 concerns the bat, what it’s made from, how its made and even how it can be repaired if damaged. Two innovations in bat manufacture sparked this rare reaction from the MCC, these laws aren’t changed very often. Since the first codified rules were written in 1744, the chronology of changes affecting the bat is, 1774 (first rule for the bat), 1809, 1979, and 2008.
In this latest episode, the first innovation was the colourful (or glaring) glass-fibre sheet covering the back of the Kookaburra bats launched in December 2004. The second is the carbon-fibre composite bat handles produced by Newbery, Puma, and Gray Nicolls from 2006. These bats were rendered illegal by the rule-change, a move which might have served to protect the spirit and balance of the game had a new Mongoose bat not appeared in 2008 and been declared legal. I’ll explain. Read the rest of this entry »
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