Taking Care of Your Cricket Bats
One of the most popular games played in Britain is Cricket. There are two teams in this game, which have 11 players in each team. The game is enjoyed across the countries. It is termed as a ‘religion’ in countries like India and Pakistan. It is a simple game that involves just bat and ball. Other cricket equipment include sight screen, stumps, and safety equipment such as wicket keeping gloves, mouthpiece, batting gloves and helmets.
In order to make cricket balls, cork base is generally used, which is covered with first twine and finally with red and white leather on its top layer. Bat is another important cricket equipment, that needs to be taken care of before and after its use.
It may come as a surprise to you that even a new bat needs to be looked after. It is essential to note here that before the bat is used on the field, it has to be prepared for the game. Cricket bats should be used for knocking down shots before these are actually used on the fields. It will safeguard it against damage. You should follow certain procedure before using bats for full swing. This will provide better results.
Linseed oil is beneficial to grease the cricket bat. You should coat it and allow the bat to soak its goodness for a few hours. Then you should put another coat of oil on it. However, you should ensure that there is not excessive oil on the bat.
The next step is to hit a wooden knocking mallet on the bat for about 10-15 times, you will notice few dents but it is quite normal. Ensure that you are not hitting the wooden mallet on the back of cricket bat, use the wooden knocking mallet, and they are available in many sport equipment stores at affordable price. Repeat the session of knocking with the wooden mallet for about 10-15 times for a number of days until the bat has received minimum of about 3-4 hours of knocking session. It is important to remember that you grease the bat before every knocking session begins with linseed oil.
Hit the edges gently with the knocking mallet till the edges obtain a round shape. It is important that you need to maintain your bat before you start playing for the final matches, so use the bat for practice sessions first before you land in the ground for the final countdown.
Bats are valuable equipments and your match performance depends a lot on the kind of cricket bats that you use. Hence, adequate maintenance of cricket bats is of vital importance particularly before you start using it.