Cricket Bat Care and Maintenance -Knocking in Your New Cricket Bat7771859

Ideally you should knock in any new cricket bat for at least six hours, yes it's a lot but it will help condition your bat for heavy usage without damaging it.

You should also knock-in your new cricket bat even if it comes advertised  as 'ready to play', as it still  won't be ready  for the full force of a hard new  cricket ball, especially if you catch an  edge or the ball  hits the toe.

I've seen players go out on to the  square with  a brand new  cricket ba t, which hadn't been  knocked  in. In the first over he dug out a Yorker, which  resulted  in a 'fatal' crack in the toe of the bat. If it had been knocked  in properly it's  unlikely  this would have ever  happened. If you don't knock in your bat you could literally  be 'throwing &pound;200  down  the pan'.

To knock in your bat I highly recommend  you use an old high  quality cricket ball.

Begin gently by tapping the bat,  particularly focusing in on the edges, as these are a very  vulnerable  part of the bat and by the end you  want the  edges to be almost slightly rounded.

Spend 2-3 hours doing this stage of knocking in the bat, making sure you cover all of the face of the bat, excluding the splice area. Don't knock-in the back of the cricket bat.

After you have done this gradually increase the force with which you hit the bat, making sure you systematically cover all of the face of the bat. By the end you should be hitting the bat with full force to simulate the impact of a real cricket ball.

When you have finished knocking in the bat, you should first progress to using the bat for out field practice and then in the nets against an old used high quality cricket ball, especially avoid 'bat breaker' cricket balls, you know the ones, cheap, hard and usually shiny. If your bat is going to break or split it's these balls that'll do the damage.

Once you've played the bat in for a few hours in the nets it'll be ready to take out on to the square.

It's a tedious process but well worth the time and effort for the results you'll get for your hard work. Its worth mentioning that some sports shops may offer a knocking in service for a small fee. Personally I like to do it myself to see how the bat progresses as it becomes more knocked in.