Pakistan openers get helping hand for England tour

By Waheed Khan

SIALKOT, Pakistan, June 1 (Reuters) - The Pakistan opening batsmen are to have a extra weapon with which to counter the England seam attack during the test series starting next month.

Shoaib Malik, Imran Farhat and Salman Butt are to get special bats made to try to help them counter the unfamiliar pitch conditions.

"There is always some sideways movement in England. These lightweight bats with a soft press and special blade will make things more comfortable for our players," Fayyaz Ahmed, a consultant for MT Techniques, told Reuters on Thursday.

Ahmed works out of a small factory in Sialkot, which is famous for manufacturing sports goods including cricket gear.

"The idea is to make bats for Malik and the others with which they feel more comfortable. Their bats will be ready to use but have more punch and their handles will also be more shock absorbent," said Ahmed, a former first-class player.

MT techniques also works to produce hand-crafted bats with Australian company Kookaburra.

These include the controversial graphite-reinforced model used by Australia captain Ricky Ponting which was withdrawn in February following a ruling by the International Cricket Council.


http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/new...ATS-PICTURE.XML

lol...... does it mean I can by kookaburra in Pakistan...
The original KOokaburra....

I dont think that a special made can make a big difference,,,, you got to have the talent and teknik to be succesful in England.....

Wont make a difference like Noman has said !

Stop playing games Pak !

good idea. with light bats they can move around their bat quickly. may loose tht special punch which bats hav now a days. may not score many boundaries i guess.

No mention about taufeeq or any other opener getting one of these new bats - is this suggesting that these are the three openers they will be taking to England? Farhat will not survive in England anyhow ... he does not have the temperament to cope with bowler friendly conditions ... just look at his poor performances in Australia in the 2004 - 05 tour.

Bats won't help correct basic flaws in technique, practice will.

I think this is all been blown out of proportion ! The original statement is a marketing statement by a bat manufacturer!

Not a good idea. They are trying to find an easy way of coping with english conditions and this is not the answer. The openers will never learn this way and they could start to think that they do not have to work on their technique because this is the answer to their problems.

totally agree - more nonsense to ignore

why restrict these bats to the openers?
Its not like YK or MoYo or even iNzi can'tr use some help.

Also MIG is, as always, correct.

arry bhai if shoaib malik nd co are more comfirtable using a light bat while opening the inning... y not go fer it. it definitely wont change their technique... but it will only help.
its lyke batsmen r more comfortable playing shoaib akhtars n brett lees with a helmet

forget the openers i think the whole team has prblem wid the moving ball

Lol! it wouldnt matter what bats our openers use, they need to improve their technics!

what a joke.......im sure every player for different conditions uses a different bat, doesnt mean you write a whole article about it.............

why not just pick taufeeq umar?!

I don't think that is correct.
Most batsmen that I know(first class players mostly) use the same bat all the time. Ofcourse, maybe the international players use different bats, but I don't think so.

how totally idiotic....proper tecnique is required

if the openers r not good then replace them

i cannot believe that sensible people who know about cricket would make

such an absurd statement

mooz bhai , international players use different weight bats all the time.....got that bit from player interviews, players like freedi, shoaib malik, even sachin tendulkar use lighter bats for australia , england etc and heavier ones for the sub-continent, infact if you have noticed when players ask for bats (replacement bats, when they damage the ones which they are playing with) they have all sorts of bats...some which seem bit thicker then the rest (heavier ones).

Chavin is right.
There was quite a bit said about Tendulkar using a lighter bat with a higher sweet spot during the WC in 2003. Worked pretty well, but how much of it was just Tendulkar