Top 5 innovative measures used by batsmen

#4 When Dennis Lillee came out with an Aluminium bat

Dennis Lillee interacts with onfield umpires about his aluminium bat

Though Dennis Lillee was not known for his batting but on this occasion, he was in the headlines for using an unconventional cricket bat named the “Combat”. The bat was made from aluminium and it was totally different from the conventional wooden bat.

The Aluminium bat was the brainchild of Graham Monaghan, a close friend of Lillee and a former club cricketer. Though Monaghan’s idea was to use this inexpensive bat in schools and other developing countries, but in December 1979, Dennis Lillee decided to walk out with this unorthodox piece of equipment in the middle of a Test match against England at Perth.

In fact, Lillee was Monaghan’s business partner and he later revealed in his autobiography that the gimmick was purely a marketing exercise. Lillee had already used the aluminium bat 12 days earlier against West Indies but the Windies bowlers weren’t bothered that much as he was dismissed cheaply.

When Greg Chappel saw Lillee wielding his aluminium bat in the nets he wasn’t too concerned. When eventually Lillee walked in with a Combat, Aussie captain Greg Chappel turned to 12th man Hogg and said, “Mate, get Dennis’s willow bat and at the end of the over go out and bring the aluminium bat back.”

Despite this Lille kept on batting with his aluminium bat but when he drove Ian Botham pretty well and the ball failed to reach the boundary Greg Chapel was furious as he thought Lillee had hit the ball well enough to go for four and his stunt was costing them runs. He turned to Hogg again and said, “Hoggy, get out there and get the bloody thing back at the end of this over.”

Hogg wasn’t willing to go so Chappel himself entered the ground with a wooden willow. In the meantime opposition captain also complained that the bat was damaging the leather ball. Lillee eventually threw away the aluminium bat in disgust and picked up the wooden willow.