The history of the cricket bat
Four hundred years of willow, in five eras. From the curved hockey-stick blades that W.G. Grace would not have recognised, through the Scoop that changed everything in 1974, to the carbon-edged power profiles of the 2025/26 Bazball generation. Each chapter cross-links to the manufacturers who built the bats and the players who carried them.
- Era I · 1624–1864
Origins — the hockey-stick bat
Curved blades carved from a single piece of willow, the first Laws of 1744, and the move to the straight bat after the underarm-to-roundarm revolution.
Read the chapter → - Era II · 1865–1945
The Golden Age & Bradman
Spliced cane handles, the rise of Stuart Surridge and William Sykes, and the bats Don Bradman carried to a 99.94 Test average.
Read the chapter → - Era III · 1946–1973
Post-war — Gray-Nicolls, Gunn & Moore, SS
English county cricket rebuilds, Meerut becomes a willow capital, and the first signature endorsements set the template for modern bat marketing.
Read the chapter → - Era IV · 1974–1999
The Scoop revolution
The 1974 Gray-Nicolls Scoop changes the shape of every bat that follows. Duncan Fearnley dominates the 1980s with Botham and Richards; Brian Lara breaks every record with the Gunn & Moore Original.
Read the chapter → - Era V · 2000–present
Big edges, Bazball & the carbon question
The MRF Genius on Tendulkar and Kohli's shoulder, Kookaburra's Kahuna and Ghost, the 2005 Woodworm phenomenon, and the modern Gray-Nicolls Shockwave and New Balance TC ranges.
Read the chapter →