How to choose cricket equipment

We have written various blogs recently about choosing different pieces of cricket equipment, from batting legguards to footwear to cricket bats and batting gloves. All of those blogs hopefully have given some sort of an insight into buying cricket equipment in slightly more detail. Here however we would like to give you an overview of what to do when buying cricket equipment and hopefully this will make your life a little bit easier.

When buying for children, it’s good to take into account whether they are just starting out or have been playing for a while and are therefore well and truly into playing the game. After all we understand you don’t want to be spending lots of money if they are likely to give up after a very short while.

If they’re just starting out,  you’ll need the basic essentials of a cricket bat, batting leg guards, batting gloves, an abdo guard, cricket helmet and perhaps some shoes. These are the basic essentials that any kid will have and can be complimented by a good cricket bag to keep all the equipment safe. Details of exactly how much to spend on each piece of equipment and the different types can be found in all the blogs.

For the player that’s into it a little bit more, you can consider a set of all in one thigh and inner thigh guards, sometimes known as strippers, an arm guard, chest guard and a good pair of cricket shoes complimented by some good quality cricket socks too.

For senior players all of the above would be needed although for senior players a good set of cricket spikes or rubbers is an absolute essential.

When selecting a kit it’s a good idea to know your overall budget and then allocate on gloves, legguards and the bat according to the importance to you. Investing in good quality kit will pay dividends to you in the long run as it will last longer and perform better too.

When buying gloves, do make every attempt to try them on and don’t just go on brand and looks alone. It takes a lot of know how to make a good glove comfortable and many gloves out there just don’t meet our comfort standards. Likewise the same should be done with batting legguards, we see far too many overpriced leg guards that use the cheapest materials and simply don’t offer the flexibility and comfort that the batsmen needs.

Latest cricket helmets offer top levels of protection and the brands to consider are Gray-Nicolls, GM, Kookaburra as well as top quality brands such as Masuri and Shrey.

In terms of spikes, please refer to our blog on cricket footwear but to give you a quick insight here, the likes of Adidas and Asics make the top level shoes and a complimented by well price models from Kookaburra, GM and Gray Nicolls.

Again with other piece of kit like bags, you can have a look at our blog. Thus overall when buying it, it’s not always necessary to go crazy and spend lots of money. Do try and going to a reputable store that is known to carry a wide range and large stocks.

That way you get a great chance to see a display of items and try them out at your leisure, to ensure you get what you want and not what shop wants to sell you.