Your ‘Blades of Glory’!
The cricket bat is the most personal thing in your bag. Gloves get replaced. Pads get upgraded. Helmets evolve. But a bat? A bat sticks. It carries dents, toe cracks, scuffs from yorkers, and the faint memory of that one time you absolutely middled it.
With our survey asking what brand you use, how old your bat is, and what you’d genuinely pay for a new one, it feels like the right time to look back. Because the bat hasn’t just changed. It’s reinvented itself.
The Crooked Beginnings (1600s–1700s)
Seventeenth-century cricket didn’t involve overpitched half-volleys or wobble-seam deliveries. Bowlers rolled the ball along the ground. So naturally, the bat looked more like a hockey stick.
As bowling evolved and the ball began to pitch, the bat had to straighten up. By the mid-1700s, we were seeing something closer to the flat blade we recognise today.
Approximate dates are:
1 – Hockey-stick style -1720
2 – Curved bat – 1750
3-5 – Modern design 1774, 1792, 1793
In 1771, a player named Thomas White tried walking out with a bat as wide as the wicket. Clever. Briefly. The Laws were amended soon after, limiting bat width to 4.25 inches. That measurement still holds.
When the Marylebone Cricket Club formed in 1787, standardisation followed. The bat stopped being improvised timber and started becoming specialist equipment.
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The Willow Era (1800s)
English willow became the material of choice in the 19th century. Light, fibrous, forgiving. Perfect for absorbing impact without feeling like you’re swinging a railway sleeper.
The splice, introduced in the early 1800s, allowed blade and handle to be joined more effectively. Cane handles followed, improving shock absorption.
Brands began to emerge.
Slazenger.
Gunn & Moore.
Gray-Nicolls (with roots back to 1855 through H.J. Gray).
Sykes.
These were craftsmen shaping bats by hand, pressing willow by feel rather than spreadsheet.
The bat had gone from farm tool to finely tuned instrument.
The Golden Age (1900–1950)
By the early 20th century, the bat’s outline was familiar. Long blade. Defined shoulders. Cane handle wrapped in rubber.
Sir Donald Bradman favoured lighter bats, often around 2lb 2oz or 2lb 3oz. Timing, not brute force. Jack Hobbs operated similarly. Balance mattered more than bulk.
A selection of English antique cricket bats from the 1920s to 1930s
In Australia, Kookaburra was rising fast, becoming a dominant force in the Ashes era and beyond.
The bat was now global.
Television, Stickers, and Status (1960s–1990s)
Then came television. Suddenly, branding mattered.
Sareen Sports — better known as SS — became a powerhouse in India. BDM made waves too.
And then the 1990s changed everything.
Sachin Tendulkar walking out with that bold red MRF sticker wasn’t just sponsorship. It was aspiration. Kids didn’t want a bat. They wanted that bat.
Edges thickened. Middles dropped lower to suit front-foot dominance. One-day cricket demanded more boundary options. Manufacturers responded.
The bat was no longer just crafted. It was marketed.
The Power Surge (2000s)
The launch of T20 cricket in 2003 sped everything up.
Edges grew. Spines got taller. Backs became aggressively concaved to remove weight while keeping wood in the hitting zone.
In 2010, Matthew Hayden briefly used the Mongoose bat in the IPL — shorter blade, longer handle, designed purely for power. It made headlines. It didn’t become the norm.
New Balance entered cricket seriously in the 2010s, signing high-profile internationals. Spartan pushed bold, modern branding.
Innovation was everywhere. Some of it worked. Some of it was a phase.
The 2017 Reset
By the mid-2010s, bats were enormous. Edges nudging 50mm. Sweet spots forgiving enough to make mishits travel.
In 2017, the ICC stepped in. Maximum depth was capped at 67mm. Edges limited to 40mm.
Manufacturers adjusted. Profiles slimmed slightly. Marketing language adapted quickly.
But compared to a 1970s blade? Today’s bats are still rockets.
The Rise of the Modern Maker
While heritage brands remain strong, the last decade has seen something else: the rise of the specialist.
Custom shaping. Player-specific profiles. Direct relationships between maker and batter.
That’s where brands like B3 Cricket have carved out space. Instead of pushing a single mould, they focus on matching bat to player — weight distribution, pick-up, handle feel. It’s less about chasing trends and more about fit.
It reflects a broader shift. Players want involvement. They want to understand pressing, grains, balance points. The bat has become collaborative again.
In a way, that feels closer to the 19th-century workshop than the 1990s billboard era.
Price, Performance, and Psychology
Now we get to the awkward bit: cost.
Top-end bats comfortably sit north of £400. Some push well beyond. Yet you’ll still see club players turning up with a five-year-old blade held together by tape and stubbornness.
And often? They swear it’s the best bat they’ve ever owned.
Is that performance? Sentiment? Or just muscle memory?
Brand loyalty runs deep. Switching stickers can feel like betrayal. Some players stay with Gray-Nicolls for decades. Others swear by Gunn & Moore. Some won’t look beyond Kookaburra. Increasingly, players are backing independent makers who build to spec.
The badge on the front matters. Even if we pretend it doesn’t.
So, What’s in Your Hands?
That’s where you come in.
What brand are you using right now?
How old is your current bat?
What would you realistically pay for your next one?
Because from crooked 17th-century sticks to precision-pressed modern blades, the bat has always reflected the era. Law changes. Format shifts. Commercial influence. Craft evolution.
Tools of the trade. Blades of glory.
And somehow, still just a piece of willow that either feels right in your hands… or doesn’t.
Now tell us yours!
The Premier League “Blades of Glory” Survey 2026
