A performance comparison between cricket bat designs

Abstract

Seven cricket bats, four standard and three significantly different designs, were tested for a set of mechanical properties: equivalent bending stiffness, moment of inertia, and freely-suspended vibration. These properties are known to be related to the performance of the cricket bats in terms of pick up weight, vibrations imparted to the batsman, and energy imparted to the cricket ball. The aim of this work was to determine whether these novel designs improve the bat’s performance parameters. Intuitively correctly, results showed that by redistributing the mass of the bat further away from the rotational axis the moment of inertia increases. This results in an increase of the ball’s rebound speed after collision. Carbon fibres inserted in the handle of the bat were found to improve its vibrational performance and provide the advantage of having a stiffer blade combined with a relatively less-stiff handle, which is an optimum for imparting maximum energy to the ball.