calm down friends. Dont mean to start a fight.
As I said in the beginning of my previous post Grade 1 or 2 or 3 doesn't mean the bat will or will not play the best.
A really good friend of mine had a small cricket factory (back in India) and I used to visit their place all the time. have seen hundreds and thousands of bats go through. I am talking 15-20 years back- used to stay away from actual manufacturing area (Too hot and not as much passion for it) and sip on free cold drinks in the small and lesser hot office. Almost all of it was made for export (stickered for different brands or unstickered to be marked as another Indian company).
Grading of the English willow as done by JS Wright (UK) is mostly on cosmetic basis. Most subcontinent companies use the same standard - they just make bats from already marked Grade 1 willow cleft as grade 1 bats and so on and so forth. So most of the good looking straight grained bats come through as Grade 1, then grade 2 etc.
Some companies do the grading on basis of performance.
A lot of professional players dont care as to how the bat looks but rather how it plays. Some of them take their time and feel a lot of bats with mallets etc - other just pick whatever is given to them. After using and going through a few bats in the nets most keep a few good ones aside for games etc. By that stage it might be a bat with 30 grains or one with 6 grains.
Personally I dont care much for what grade the bat is - needs to feel good and good ping.
Maybe Grade 1 (lookswise- straight grains) are harder to come by and now they are classifying half redwood bats as grade 1- but somehow I dont think so. grade 1 only have thin redwood along the edge. 1 cm or 2 at most but not half the bat - ever!
Hope this explains my viewpoint. I would like to hear yours - without the angry tone
