Cricket has been one of the most popular games played from centuries in Britain. It is played between two teams consisting of 11 players each; enjoyed by people around the world and in places like India and Pakistan cricket is considered as a ?religion?. Cricket is a simple bat and ball game played with other equipments like stumps, sight screen and safety protection equipments like batting gloves, wicket keeping gloves, mouthpiece and helmet. Cricket balls are made of cork base covered with twine and finally covered either with red or white leather on the top. Bat, popular cricket equipment and it is important to understand the fact that the cricket bats require effective maintenance at both the stages before using the bat and even after using the bat. You may wonder as to why a new bat requires maintenance... but surprisingly it is important to note that you need to make the bat ready before actually starting up the game to play. Bats need to be used to the knock down shots before you plunge into the field otherwise there will be higher risks of bats getting damaged. It is important that you take adequate steps before using your bat in full swing; these steps that will help your bat to deliver the expected results are simple and easy.


A coating of linseed oil on the bat is effective, coat thin layer of linseed oil; allow the bat to absorb the oil for few hours. Once again apply a thin coating of oil on the surface of the bat. It is important that you just grease the bat with oil and excessive application of oil is not preferred. You can check this by making the bat stand and incase the oil drains down then it indicates too much application of oil. The next step is to hit a wooden knocking mallet on the bat for about 10-15 times, you will notice few dents but it is quite normal. Ensure that you are not hitting the wooden mallet on the back of cricket bat, use the wooden knocking mallet (specifically made for knocking cricket bats), and they are available in many sport equipment stores at affordable price. Repeat the session of knocking with the wooden mallet for about 10-15 times for a number of days until the bat has received minimum of about 3-4 hours of knocking session. It is important to remember that you grease the bat before every knocking session begins with linseed oil.  
Hit the edges gently with the knocking mallet till the edges obtain a round shape. It is important that you need to maintain your bat before you start playing for the final matches, so use the bat for practice sessions first before you land in the ground for the final countdown. Bats are valuable equipments and your match performance depends a lot on the kind of cricket bats that you use. Hence, adequate maintenance of cricket bats is of vital importance particularly before you start using it..