Cricketers warned of looming ’emergency’ as action demanded on overlooked topic

MCC recently hosted a conference to address the issue, with prices spiralling as demand soars – particularly in the sub-continent – for a product reliant on English willow.

Professional cricketers have been urged to rethink how many bats they are churning through amid a ‘ cricket bat emergency’ caused by an increasing shortage of willow. MCC recently hosted a conference to address the issue, with prices spiralling as demand soars – particularly in the sub-continent – for a product reliant on English willow.

Climate change is also playing its part, with milder winters in the UK accelerating tree growth, leading to wider grains and bats which take longer to knock in. Maia Bouchier, who has represented England’s women 65 times across all formats, is among those calling for her fellow pros to learn more about the problem and consider their own usage.

“Players should be more aware of how long they are using their bats for,” said Bouchier, an MCC Foundation ambassador. “To have an idea of how many people use x amount of bats every year, I can’t even guess the number, it’s probably ridiculous. I have used three bats in the last two years overall and if I’m scoring runs, I don’t want to change it.

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“The men play a lot more cricket than we do, so it makes more sense they use more bats, but it is something we need to speak about more. Ultimately, if you don’t have willow, you can’t bat and you can’t play. It’s good to hear about what has been happening. I’ve only had one conversation about it, and I was a bit like ‘oh, I didn’t know that’.

“We need to be a bit more aware of it and see what is happening in that space.”

The ‘cricket bat conference’ at Lord’s featured key stakeholders across the industry and included various panel discussions on what can be done to help prevent a looming crisis.

Solutions including lamination, where an English willow face could be backed by cheaper and lesser-performing Kashmir willow, and the exploration of alternative materials, focusing on creating non-wooden, or wood derivative, bats, were all put forward.

Sustainability is at the heart of the issue – lamination, for example, ensures more of the tree is used – while the knock-on effects could be felt in the recreational game if costs continue to rise.

A high-quality bat can now cost in the region of four figures, a prohibitive figure in a cost-of-living crisis, and MCC Sustainability and Development Manager Stuart Dunlop is among those working on finding a way forward.

“It has been on our radar for a couple of years,” he said. “Using our position within the game to drive change as much as possible, we are researching and exploring solutions on how we can utilise the resources we have got to ensure we don’t interrupt the performance of the game while remaining conscious of the environmental impact.

“We need to keep growing the game and give people the resources to do that at an affordable price. This is a key issue. It is good we are exploring it and putting a lot of resource into something which is vital for the future growth of cricket.”

Maia Bouchier was speaking at the launch of MCC’s Carbon Impact Report. For more information, visit lords.org/sustainability