best bat brand

[hanery]

As per my experience Kookaburra is the best brand, The bat of Kookaburra is very nice.

[slowfinger]

I use the CA/GM combo. CA for agressive play, GM if we need to defend. Works wonders.

[TLBcricket]

I buy and sell my own brand of bats and have a little bit of experience within the market.

The big brands usually contract quite a lot of their bats out to companies such as FC Sondhi and SG. The top of the range bats are usually made in house. There is no way that these brands can make everything in house.

SG for example make 1000-1200 bats every DAY! They make for such brands as Kookaburra, Adidas, Puma & Gray-Nicolls.

Many smaller brands in the UK produce real quality handmade cricket bats, where they make everything inhouse. From splitting the willow into clefts, pressing the willow and then shaping and finishing the bat.

Quite hard to say which is the best brand, but Newbery have all of their top graded bats made by Tim Keeley who is well known for his great bats, especially the way they are pressed. Laver & Wood in New Zealand are also very good.

[uvelocity]

I wish I knew about this company before I bought my new bat recently. Julian Millichamp's brand - Screaming Cat.

Screaming Cat-Finest Hand Made Cricket Bats

[vic_orthdox]

Seen quite a few Screaming Cats around, they're usually pretty darn good sticks, very flat shape though. Laver and Wood is a ripping brand, one of the blokes from our club gets them sent over to him.

[TLBcricket]

Originally Posted by uvelocity

I wish I knew about this company before I bought my new bat recently. Julian Millichamp's brand - Screaming Cat.

Screaming Cat-Finest Hand Made Cricket Bats

Undoubtedly high quality cricket bats, but overpriced in my opinion. You can get a similar product for half the price in the UK.

[vic_orthdox]

English sticks in general better priced. Everyone talks about Puma's sticks deteriorating in quality when Millichamp stopped being involved.

Got a Charlie French over in England, was easily the worst stick I've ever used. Quite a few guys used some Torpedos that came out of Bradford, I believe - really good sticks but their durability was pretty ordinary. Hunts in Australia (Hunts County in England) are reasonably consistent - decent sticks, but never got an absolute beauty out of them.

[benchmark00]

Use the word 'stick' more.

[vic_orthdox]

Haha, cop that on the chin.

[Prince EWS]

Originally Posted by benchmark00

Use the word 'stick' more.

[TLBcricket]

Originally Posted by vic_orthdox

English sticks in general better priced. Everyone talks about Puma's sticks deteriorating in quality when Millichamp stopped being involved.

Got a Charlie French over in England, was easily the worst stick I've ever used. Quite a few guys used some Torpedos that came out of Bradford, I believe - really good sticks but their durability was pretty ordinary. Hunts in Australia (Hunts County in England) are reasonably consistent - decent sticks, but never got an absolute beauty out of them.

Depends which Puma's we are talking about. Only the top end higher models are handmade in England (By Rob Pack if I remember correctly), these are very nice indeed, he deals with many Pro's directly.

The middle/lower range ones will be made in India by SG I think. The Torpedo bats are imported from either India or Pakistan. Not 100% sure which, but they are priced to only last a season really. I have used one before and they were great.

[vic_orthdox]

Pumas in Australia, ftr, and the players ones. Quite a few guys moved from Puma to other brands in Australia when they got the chance, at the end of contracts etc. about four or so years ago.

[benchmark00]

[Merve'sTash]

((new thread- sorry Mods: if needs be strike this post)).

Hi, Im new and my name is Merve'sTash. For alI you nippers Merve had a very impressive tash. and gob. Now enough of the pleasantries, down to buisness..
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I have a lot of disdain for the bats made today & the makers are on a swindle IMO. Here's why I think so.

I play and teach at club level and see countless new thick 'unpressed' bats by the well-known makes last just a season or two. Now, it may be a fad of sorts to plough thru a few quickly like our lads' (15- 22 yr old I mean) pro heros seem to do.. but.. Im in no doubt they are made purposefully incorrectly-pressed, and then marketed with abject spiel like for eg "Super thick edges" with the very intention that they will last no more than a few seasons, so another bat will need be bought.

-Why any batsman would want 'super thick edges' anyway? it is the -antithesis- of what's needed (or a stupidly curved banana-bow either/ more marketing baloney, but that's not important right now)-.

It might be traced back to the sub-continent 'new (Ihsan for eg) bat makers' approach starting (as I saw it 1988 ish/ Pakistan) of extra fat/ lightly pressed thick monster bats, which actually picked up sweetly of course as they were merely a ~2.8lb or so. But were shot after a season or two. AsI see it the reason could be either; with the high pressures involved their machines were/ are perhaps ~not quite so good in compared to English makers' trad/ old 'BigBertha' presses, or, its simply quicker to press a bat once rather than as it should be once again (?- conjecture here, Im not an expert on the process pe se). Nevertleless.. I think the trad Co's here just blatently followed suit, realising a profit windfall relative to their bat revenues previous to say ~late 90's/ early 00's) and with modern marketing drivel now consistantly produce junk bats made for 3 seasons tops, regardless of the actaul willow being a Pro/ 8* finest or a Club/ 4* perfectly fine thanking you please.

I have a 2.9lb GN powerspot 5* from 1988, its as thin as a whippet in comparison to a modern monster 2.9lb, obviously as its pressed well: Its in perfect condition still and I still use it regularly. Quality vs junk. And its just a pressing involved: sheesh.

Its a right royal cricket bat swindle. Add the ludicrous prices for a decent say 5* today and I say our trad English cricket Co's are a bunch of rotters.

MT.

[breecey89]

I use PiriPiri Cricket bats; they're a small company I saw at the Lord's trade show; and I haven't had any grumbles!!

They look great, and whilst I know a lot of you guys won't be worried about how your bat looks, it's a plus point for me!

Although I have to stress I didn't buy one just for the stickers; I had a tough time choosing between the 3 shapes on offer (think they've now added a fourth); and they are superbly balanced. The pick up is light as a feather, but you still feel like you have plenty coming through when you play your shot.

I like to think I'm an "all around the park" type of batsman, and that I'm pretty solid with all shots, although in reality I'm probably a front foot player until one is really banged in and I look to hook or pull. The bat I have (the Naga Jolokia) was great for me last year; I was finding the middle regularly, and the ball absolutely flies off of it!

I prefer to use smaller/up and coming brands - if I was to have a problem with PP the only contact I have is the director of the company... no middle men there!! I know Customer Service isn't usually something you would look at when choosing a bat but it's something that I began to notice when some of my previous bats had broken - it's a real pain in the a*** to get them replaced or fixed sometimes!!