Ponting's Strange Bat

[shirazi_r]

Does Punter's father still cut the toe off his bats to size them?

Look at how square the toe profile is on his bat. Unlike any other Kahuna I've ever seen.

 

[momin97]

he might be using a smaller bat just so he can time the ball better i dont know

 

[Cover Drive]

Yaar these square toes are mainly on Asian made bats so I won't be surprised if he is using Asian made bat. I think in Hayden's book or somewhere I read Pointing bats come from India.

Waisay generally the rounder the toe, stronger it is.

 

[Cricketismylife]

I read Pointing bats come from India.

Spot on- From Meerut. SS have made bats for Ponting in the past.

He might have knicked/stolen/cheated a bat out of D Warner- his bats are all square toes.

Looking at the grains anyone would want that one! Awesome looking!

 

[Knightrider]

Seems like you know Mr Ponting personally..did he tell you his bats were made by SS in the past or did u just hear rumours on the forum?

My SG VS-319 bat toe is very similar to the bat Mr Ponting is using.

 

[Cover Drive]

Spot on- From Meerut. SS have made bats for Ponting in the past.

He might have knicked/stolen/cheated a bat out of D Warner- his bats are all square toes.

Looking at the grains anyone would want that one! Awesome looking!

SS is a bit unlikely I would say because SS toe's are quite roundish so I would say SG is a possibility.

I don't know but lots of pro bats have amazing grains so do they get good grains bat or low density clefts ?

 

[Cricketismylife]

Seems like you know Mr Ponting personally..did he tell you his bats were made by SS in the past or did u just hear rumours on the forum?

One of my good mates is in sports-gear business. He was in Meerut and saw a few players (including Ponting) come into the SS factory once.

The SS bat maker later on showed my friend the bats that he had made for Ponting. Some were picked from them and others were later sent by courier to Australia (Aussie Tour of India was finished by then).

He might be getting some made by SG now coz all Kookas are made by SG anyways.

 

[Cricketismylife]

Contrary to popular belief most International players (especially the senior guys) get bats from everywhere.

e.g. I know for a fact that Sachin gets bats from BDM, SS, SG, BAS(heaps), Larsons, Newberry, Bradbury(atleast 2 bats), A few from laver and wood and couple of other small factories in Jalandhar.

Sometimes he just sends his old bat to be copied - other places he walks into the factory to feel some and select a few. e.g. when he is in Delhi for a game he drops by the Meerut factories once in a while.

The logic behind getting bats from many places is to do with increasing your chances of getting the best of the best of the best. Being wood - a natural product one never knows which place did get the "best batch" for the top grade willow.

 

[Cricketismylife]

Not sure if anyone can confirm this but Ponting actually ended up using some of these SS bats in the series against India and the series after that. If someone can find a couple of pics that would be awesome.

It wasnt the recent tour of 2 test series VS india - it was the one before that.

 

[askmoi]

there is no way of confirming that. even if the bat was SS (which I doubt) there won't be any "TON" branding on the edges.

and sachin is very particular about his bats. they need to be to his exact measurements. true that he gets bats from everywhere.

cd, pros normally go for performance. although some have their own preferences (for e.g. cook prefers lots of grains, kp normally prefers half heartwood). also i feel there is too much hype about low density clefts. almost everyone claims to be having such a bat.

 

[Cover Drive]

cd, pros normally go for performance. although some have their own preferences (for e.g. cook prefers lots of grains, kp normally prefers half heartwood). also i feel there is too much hype about low density clefts. almost everyone claims to be having such a bat.

I know they go after performance but then we see most of the pro bats (mainly all) have very very good looking grains and perform as well.

I think performance plays a big role in pressing...

 

[askmoi]

you are absolutely right. i think normally also we see clean blades with evenly spaced ruler straight grains performing really well. so i guess that is what pros also prefer.

as for pressing, i am not sure on that. even they have their favourite match bats and would like to prolong the life as much as possible. i hope the pressing done by batmakers is the same whether the bat is for a pro or for the general public

 

[Cover Drive]

This sometimes make me think can't our bats be used by pros or in test matches? Is there sooo much of a difference? Are our bats really inferior ?

I think if you zoom in to that picture you will see few dents which I believe is because of soft pressed bat ?

 

[Cricketismylife]

there is no way of confirming that. even if the bat was SS (which I doubt) there won't be any "TON" branding on the edges.

I was told that some of the bats that he played with had ss or ton stampings on them!!!

 

[askmoi]

i hope they are not that inferior. maybe some of our bats might be good enough as well.

i also believe they are soft pressed to give maximum performance. but then it will not last long. and if batmakers do the same for our bats, then they cannot give any warranty. thats why maybe they are pressed harder.

 

[Cover Drive]

I find it really hard to believe that a top of the line bat we buy from store is not like what test players use in international matches.

I was at National Cricket Academy in summer and I saw Pakistan A pplayers bat along Sohail Tanvir and Taufeeq Umar's bat and trust me bro I didn't find anything in them which was something so special that was not in our bats. I would say some of our bats would be probably better than Tanvir's Bubber Sher.

Agreed, in addition to that they have fewer grains in them so they last long because they don't want the buyer to come back after two days complaining of something. I have seen GN Ignite Pro Performance with six grains seriously

 

[Cover Drive]

Contrary to popular belief most International players (especially the senior guys) get bats from everywhere.

e.g. I know for a fact that Sachin gets bats from BDM, SS, SG, BAS(heaps), Larsons, Newberry, Bradbury(atleast 2 bats), A few from laver and wood and couple of other small factories in Jalandhar.

Sometimes he just sends his old bat to be copied - other places he walks into the factory to feel some and select a few. e.g. when he is in Delhi for a game he drops by the Meerut factories once in a while.

The logic behind getting bats from many places is to do with increasing your chances of getting the best of the best of the best. Being wood - a natural product one never knows which place did get the "best batch" for the top grade willow.

Good point!

I think another reason is that the companies want to make there name and want pros to use there bats.

I actually sometime think that people say Tim Keeley is one of the worlds best batmaker so why does Sachin use majority of BAS made bats? He surely can get endless number of bats from Keeley..

 

[SempreSami]

Pretty sure he gets his bats from all kinds of places.

 

[Cricketismylife]

I actually sometime think that people say Tim Keeley is one of the worlds best batmaker so why does Sachin use majority of BAS made bats? He surely can get endless number of bats from Keeley..

The thing is that its relative. The whole podshaving is relative.

You might find person A's bats better whereas I might like someone completely different. What you have grown playing with matters a lot in case of pro players.

Even if Sachin was to go to Keeley he would still ask for a copy of the old BAS he has been using - the shape will still be same (minor changes) - the wood however would be the top of what the batmaker has got.

 

[Cover Drive]

Are BAS people family member of Sachin?

I wonder did BAS sponsor Tendulkar after 1995 ?

 

[Cricketismylife]

Told by BAS ex employee - Sachin, before he was a big thing, was give gloyves/softs by BAS .... Kids sponsorships etc and eveen after he became huge he was still using their gear as a thank you and being real happy witb the designu. Then he got a big sponsorship by BDM for gloves.

Also back in the day BAS were the best batmakers and also Sachin clicked with their profile from the start as well

 

[Cover Drive]

Actually Sachin still uses BAS gloves but Adidas have played around with them and made them look Adidasish although I am pretty sure he is still uses BAS gloves.

 

[askmoi]

he is using adidas ones now. he was using bas ones earlier.

 

[Cover Drive]

He is probably still using BAS but the stamp and sign of BAS is no where to be seen..

 

[askmoi]

i meant the gloves. anyway as for bat, no one can be certain where it is from

 

[Cover Drive]

Actually a while ago I did a research and saw that the gloves are indeed Adidas, because the design, protection etc everything is same. What I think Adidas has done is that they have taken it and tweaked them by using different colour scheme, Adidas Logo thing strap that is overlaping the fingers etc etc

Just like how Ihsan/Azhar Ali have done to SS gloves

 

[askmoi]

could be

 

[PakPrince]

the bat does not seem to be helping him that much