Cheap England Replica Kit
I got an e-mail through this afternoon from Kitbag, who have got some proper bargains in their cricket sale at the moment, and thought a few readers may want to take advantage of these prices! 
Blue England Training top for £2.99
Red/White/Blue Training Top £9.99
There are also rain jackets and fleeces for 15 quid, or some shorts for just a fiver. All well worth a look for some cheap practice gear! Take a look at the whole range here
Cricket Spikes
In previous posts I have talked about equipment from a specific brand in each post, but spikes are a bit different and I’ll try to give an overview of all of the decent ones now here.
Adidas are one of the best known brands for spikes, and the brand of spikes that I use. After last years half-hearted effort of changing the colour from red to blue (WOW!), this year they have actually changed the look and feel of the spikes a bit as well. Supremely comfortable and available in many different versions, you won’t go wrong with a pair of these.
Asics are the other top brand at the moment in cricket spikes, and favoured by fast bowlers throughout the world. I havn’t actually tried Asics spikes before, but if they are anything like their trainers (which they almost certainly will be), they will be very comfortable and decent lasting. They look pretty good as well, but they aren’t that cheap - but worth a go if you don’t fancy the Adidas.
There is also Puma who sell a decent range of cricket spikes, which are also pretty hard wearing from my experience. Apart from these top brands, a lot of the cricket companies have their own brand of cricket shoe out as well but they generally cater for the lower end of the market. They don’t look as good and won’t be as comfortable over a decent length of time - its always worth spending a bit of money on your feet as you will have to wear them for quite a while each week!
Nike Air Zoom Yorkers are another shoe which you will seen worn by international players, but these aren’t available in the UK, and the only way you can get them is by over paying to import some and to be honest i can’t see the point. Maybe if they import them properly and we can get them from an authorised retailer I’ll look at them again.
The final thing you could do is to get a pair of trainers “spiked”. This involves buying a comfortable pair of trainers and sending them off to a specialist who will then remove part of the sole and replace it with a new one with spikes in it! Pro’s like this as it means they can find their most comfortable trainer and not have to wear something “off the shelf” from Adidas or similar. The costs for this are quite high though - but if you play a lot of cricket then it is worth thinking about.
So there we have everything you could want to know about cricket spikes in time for the season, time to go out there and buy some!
Gunn and Moore 2008 Equipment
We move onto Gunn and Moore for the next in the series looking at 2008 equipment! They havn’t changed anything huge in their range for this year, although they have simplified their protection range (thank god – more companies could learn from them).
When the Catalyst came out last year I deliberated about which bat to get before buying one of these, and I was delighted with the decision I made. The star in the range if you ask me - A great bat, although I prefer the look mine has over the new 2008 model. Light enough to play your shots, but with a decent chunk of wood, middle it and the ball will go flying. I really do love my bat and I would recommend any of the catalyst range to anyone.
The others in the range also have an updated look, and they have revived the “cannon” model name, but nothing outstandingly new this year.
Onto the protection, and I mentioned that this has been simplified. Before they had each model (catalyst, duellist, etc), and each price point (606, 808, original le etc), which meant for a very large range, and complication where it wasn’t needed as the products were essentially the same. Now they just have the price points, so going from 303 for the entry level stuff up to original le test quality stuff. Much more simple and it all looks pretty good stuff – I reckon I might be in the market for a pair of their pads this season. I already have the bat and I swear by the gloves (the most comfortable out there in my opinion).
Oops, that turned into a bit of an advert for Gunn and Moore – I guess keeping your customers happy has its benefits!
Gray Nicolls in 2008
Another in the series of 2008 equipment, today I’m looking at Gray Nicolls!
Nothing revolutionary for this traditional company on the face of it, with just a slightly updated look throughout most of the range. They put out some good quality kit despite it not being particularly leading on the innovation side.
Probably their most popular range of the past couple of years, the Predator, has been superseded, and on the face of it the Nitro looks like the replacement. The shape of the bat looks similar, albeit with some more modern graphics. However, when you see one of these bats in the flesh, you’ll be surprised at how they’ve made the edges as huge as they are yet kept the bat amazingly light. Maybe a bat for the batsman who likes to nick through the slips!!
The Fusion has been a success in the modern world of enormous bats, and helped by Matty Hayden using one to great effect in all international cricket recently. I very nearly bought one of these last year, but I was worried the bat would be too heavy over longer periods of time (academic really, I was never batting for a long time!). A cracking bat though and if I was in the financial and skill position to have two separate bats, this would be one of them I reckon.
The Viper was never a big seller, but has been updated and is the lightweight bat in the range for the player who looks to play more nimble and who wants a bat more similar to the legendary “GN Millennium”.
So, nothing that immediately jumps out and screams “buy me”, but good quality kit and a fan base that will keep returning will see another decent year for Gray Nicolls. But where is the excitement, the “wow” factor?!
VB Warnie
This is something that we won’t see over in England, but last year when I was in Australia I was caught up a bit in the marketing hype, enough so that I want to post about it!
Victoria Bitter, or VB as it is more affectionately known “down under”, is an Australian lager and the company behind them have supported cricket for quite a while. The past few years they have released plastic dolls or manikins, such as the one shown to the right, which are mine! The first year was just David Boon on his own, and last year for the ashes they had Boony and Beefy (Ian Botham obviously!). Wow, so nothing special you say… well how about the fact that they talk to each other! Put these little bad boys near the tele, and when you settle down to watch Australia take on some second rate outfit from another country, they start chirping up! Its witchcraft, I tell ye! However, when I brought them back to this country they had to be moved downstairs as they were talking as I was trying to sleep!
Anyway, onto the point – this year the ambassador for VB is none other than Warney. They have changed the format slightly, so its just Shane this year, and he’s sat down in his armchair. If you’re down under you can get him if you buy a nice big pack of VB (lovely stuff, by the way – but bloody difficult to get in England!), or from the 1 st December you can get him from the online shop at www.vbwarnie.com.au Or maybe you want to buy an inflatable chair, t-shirt or hat! Also on that site there are a couple of addictive little games, desktop downloads etc. Never say I can be taken in by marketing spiel again!!
As a sidenote I think this would work ok in England, but the brands which support cricket (Marston’s), are a little more reserved and I don’t see them attempting this. But imagine how many people would get one of these with Freddie or KP on… My commission fee can be sent to me at….!
New Slazenger Bats for 2008
I’ve not done a post recently on the 2008 gear coming out at the moment, and there is a lot to get through it seems! I’ll try to keep up a bit more with them in the next few weeks so you know what to start saving up for! Slazenger is the focus of my attention today - after I saw Michael Clarke’s bat looking pretty sweet.
Despite saying that, you can’t buy Clarke’s bat for a couple of reasons - slazenger AUS and GB are separate entities, and two - he isn’t exactly a household name over here. His bat still looks nice though! Slazenger havn’t been the most exciting brand over the last few years, and 2008 doesn’t look like its going to buck the trend. A slightly updated look has been applied to the bats, and the names have been changed but the profiles look the same and you wonder if there is actually anything “new”.
What used to be the SE is now the “Pro blade”, the SXI becomes the “Pure blade” and the SX is renamed to be “Power blade” and they are shown in the image above in that order left-right. Still, if Bell has another top season like last year and Collingwood does ok as one day skipper it should help them shift a few. So not the most exciting, and not top of my list but no doubt they will be for someone!
