Does wind 'stressed' willow improve cricket bat performance?
I had a conversation with a colleague recently about wind damaged willow, and its effect on making a cricket bat. He had a piece of second-hand knowledge that in South Africa someone was making 'wind-damaged' bats that perform better than the standard. At the time I hadn’t a clue whether this was true or not, so I tried to find some answers.
A little trawl of the web revealed the somewhat obvious that wind damage results in fibres buckled under compression, or fractured under tension. But nothing of any detail on wind damage relating to performance of bats. In conversation with Gunn and Moore they referred to 'compression creases' caused by wind damage, and some bats returned broken are logged under this term. Manufacturers will often replace a bat free of charge if such catastrophic breaks occur within one-year of purchase.
