The Mongoose Bat

There is a new cricket bat doing the rounds that is supposed to revolutionise the game.  It is called the Mongoose.

Cricket bats have looked roughly the same for at least a hundred years, but the Mongoose is a radically different animal. “I was sceptical when I first saw it. But after hitting with it, I reckon it will take the world by storm,” Law said.

The Mongoose is the brainchild of inventor Marcus Codrington Fernandez, a former creative director at the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather. When he was forced out of the office by a stroke, Codrington Fernandez spent a couple of months laid up in bed, dreaming about ways to improve the boring old cricket bat.

His first conclusion was that, in the age of Twenty20 cricket, there is no point in having all that wood around the bat’s shoulders. The splice has no offensive capability in any case. So you might as well lengthen the handle, and make the blade shorter and heavier.

The average Mongoose has a toe that is about two inches thick, which means that even the perfect yorker can be driven for four. And when you take this rigid chunk of wood – effectively an 18-inch railway sleeper – and stick it on the end of an equally long handle, it starts to act like a giant golf club.

Law admits that he would think twice before using his sawn-off Mongoose against Steve Harmison. When the ball is flying around your nostrils, the shoulders of the old-fashioned bat have an important role to play. But he believes that on slow, low pitches – like the ones you encounter on the sub-continent, or in English club cricket – the Mongoose can double your power.

 

The basic concept is that in Twenty20, where the need for agression is paramount, you do not need the shoulders/splice area of the bat, which are entirely defensive.
So the blade has been shortened and the handle lengthened, and the meat of the bat is constructed to ensure maximum hitting power.  Apparantly, Stuart Law is impressed.
The problem with the whole “revolutionise the game” thing is that cricket tends to adapt to new methods and tactics.  So the bowling will adapt.  I wouldn’t fancy playing the fastest bowlers with half a blade.  I suspect the fast bowlers would fancy their chances against batsmen who use it.  We shall see.
There is also the possibility of the games lawmakers treating it with the same disdain as the aluminium bat.