Cricket has escaped similar examination because wood has held its ground and power batting keeps cricket in the headlines.
This is not cricketing timber as we once knew it. Wander in to a sports store and wave a few of these behemoths about, and you will find they are masterfully crafted. The scales say they are heavier than in the past, by about 100 grams, but they feel lighter. They have been scooped and tapered and pressed in a way that makes them almost feel weightless, although they are anything but.
The top professionals get theirs tailor-made, but Joe and Jane Average can buy them if their income is anything but average. I read somewhere there is a bat which cracked the $2000 mark.
This World Cup will be a showcase for the batting revolution, the teams that count being stacked with an extended generation of gym-enhanced cricketers who have learned how to use the new willows by tearing up those stuffy old coaching manuals. This is why reverse sweeps can smash into the boundary, snicks from the extra-wide edges fly over the ropes, and the ball can be scooped straight over a wicketkeeper's head. Bowlers, meanwhile, have been turned into fodder by these cannons.
The new bats have made it a new game, and they have taken something away. When batting assaults become common, they lose their highest appeal.
But none of these modern day stars - and they are capable of amazing things - are as good as Viv Richards. Yet the cricket bat revolution is so comprehensive, that Richards-class assaults on bowlers can happen every week.
What would Don Bradman have achieved with one of these fierce and fragile modern day weapons or half a dozen of them, which is the sort of number a top player is said to go through in a season? The undisputed batting champion laid the foundations for his game hitting a golf ball with a cricket stump in his backyard, giving him the eye to play every shot imaginable back then.
Bradman's sporting psychology was shaped by those backyard experiences, and today's cricketing kids are moulded by heroes who can clout anything plus Christmas present bats that put the ball and their thinking into another orbit.
Just for the hell of it, it would be interesting to see what resulted if McCullum and co. played using bats from the 1970s. More importantly, have the bat manufacturers found a design peak, or are there explosive developments to go?
2 Other things
Hot topic
A cricket World Cup prediction: umpiring mistakes will lead to calls for Hot Spot to be introduced, and this excellent review technology will make a comeback for the semifinals. The ICC is bonkers for dumping it in the first place.
Blues' blues
John Kirwan's Blues are doing a terrific impression of a sinking ship. It's hard to keep up with all the players who are leaving, Brendan O'Connor being the latest to announce his impending departure. Remember too that legendary coach Graham Henry along with Mick Byrne didn't exactly cling to their jobs. Loose forward O'Connor is part of another trend, of players seeking international rugby futures in Europe. A quick count says there are about 20 southern hemisphere imports in the Six Nations teams, with Ireland and Scotland leading the way.
