This is kinda interesting as well.
Gear evolution for rich Stanford tournament
Cricket
CMC
Monday, July 10, 2006
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) - Cricket fans who have grown accustomed to the white flannels will be in for a festive treat and a real eye-opener as the inaugural Stanford 20/20 prepares to take the game and its equipment to a brand new level.
The stunning innovations are sure to take the world by storm.
That is the view of Raj Walia, the designer and manufacturer of all the equipment being used by the more than 250 players, who has promised never-before-seen scenes during the July 11 to August 13 tournament.
"This is exciting stuff. This is the most exciting project I have ever worked on. I had these ideas for a long time and I'm happy that Mr Allen Stanford and the organisers of the Stanford 20/20 Cricket Tournament wanted to work with me," said Walia, who is based in Toronto, Canada, where he has been living for 14 years.
"It's about being creative and making the sport exciting as we look at the evolution of the game. It's about creating new lines for the future. It's very exciting I can tell you. I have been asked to execute my ideas on the final product and that's just what I did.
"From the look of things, people are very excited about the final product. I know the fans at the matches and those watching on television will be quite excited as well."
He is head of Prabha Sports, which produces the world-class sporting equipment brands BAS and Vampire. They do products for 37 sports.
They have produced over 300 black bats for the tournament allowing each player to have his own brand new bat, pads, gloves, shirts, pants, and "all the other stuff that makes a player happy".
"The bats are made of English willow and will be black in colour. They have a carbon coating on them, which will make them look like a shiny, shiny bat.
It will be very reflective and will have the nice Stanford 20/20 logo at the back. Shiny," Walia said.
"It's still the same grade 1 willow from England so we have lost nothing in terms of quality. A few countries have used them so far and they are really liking them."
How did he manage to get the black? Walia explained: "It's a type of coating on the bat. It's a type of coating and not paint. If we used a paint it would have added weight to the bats. Of course we have done something on it to get the amazing look, but that's our top secret".
Fans who have grown accustomed to the red ball in the longer version of the game, and white balls in one-day matches and 20/20 encounters will also be in for another treat.
The ball for the Stanford 20/20 will be orange and will glow in the dark!
"International cricket will eventually move towards the orange ball. Maybe you can't see it yet, but the evolution is coming. This is not the first time the orange ball will be used," Walia added.
"It has been used in cricket before with tremendous success. They will glow at night, and that would actually enhance the game and be better for the bowlers, batsmen, fielders, umpires and spectators.
"The orange ball will swing a bit more, because the tanning process which went into making the orange ball is different to the red or white ball. The orange ball is more balanced. It's more of a natural leather, than the red and white ball."
Walia explained how it is done.
"You take raw leather, tan it orange and then you go through the process of adding the colour into it and then you go through the normal chemical processes. Actually it took about five months to produce the ball. In the matches we will need about 35 balls, but we will have many, many more. About 100 dozen balls (1,200) were produced."
And it gets even more exciting, when Walia gave the details of the team uniforms.
"The equipment will be mainly black. But the dominant colour from that nation's flag will be an accent in that equipment. For example, for the gloves, they will be black, but the index finger will carry that strip of the dominant colour of the flag. Into the pads, they will be black and the dominant colour will be a strip down the middle, will be the case with the helmets," Walia said.
"The stumps are not painted, but will not be the natural colour. They will have the same type of texture as the stumps and will be silver. The bails will be silver and these will added some new elements to the game.
"I had some very professional people working with me from the Stanford 20/20 Tournament. This was the highest level of professionalism I have seen for a long time. They knew what they wanted and my job was to supply it. It was not a challenge, it was creative stuff. This is what gets me excited, the look on people's faces. The teams are very excited and the world will see what it looks like," Walia said.