My Equipment

"It matters little how much equipment we use; it matters much that we be masters of all we do use"

~ Sam Abell (1945- American Photographer)

I recently wrote about my cricket bats that I will be using this summer, so I think it only fair that I also detail the other equipment that I will be using this season.

Starting from the top - my helmet. It is a Gray Nicolls Warrior Helmet. As far as helmets go, it looks pretty good, but then they all seem to be variations of a theme and may very well be manufactured in the same factory in India as all the other brands are. I removed the steel grill that comes standard with it as it is a bit naff and I replaced it with an Albion Titanium Ti 22 Contour Faceguard which is heaps lighter and looks much cooler. To make it look even more wicked, I spray painted the faceguard black - which looks so much better than its' original grey colour. The helmet cost fifty dollars and the titanium Ti 22 Contour faceguard cost seventy five dollars directly from Albion.

As a point of comparison, my first helmet I ever owned was bought by my parents when I was about thirteen years old and it was a Duncan Fearnley. It cost my parents about seventy odd dollars back in about 1982. Given the Gray Nicolls helmet is better lined and lighter, it is remarkable how much more expensive equipment was back then in a cost comparison analysis. To put it into perspective, your average median house price in Melbourne those days was $40,800 where as now (2009) it is $451,000 - ie; around eleven times higher. The average wage has not risen eleven fold in that time, but it has probably increased at least four fold. So a seventy dollar helmet back in 1982 would be equivalent to paying two hundred and eighty dollars now.

Having said all that, I must say that I have never been hit on the head while playing cricket no matter how fast the bowling was that I faced, however, it is flirting with trouble to bat without a helmet because when you least expect it - whack, you are nursing a mouth full of loose teeth or worse.

I purchased a Gray Nicolls forearm guard - but I don't even bother wearing it to be honest. I am as likely to be hit on the forearm as I am to be struck by lightning. However, if we ever play against a team with a freakishly fast bowler who extracts vicious bounce off docile turf wickets - I may reconsider and wear it. Until that time it will sit in my kit bag. It cost me the princely sum of twenty dollars.

My two next bits of equipment I didn't photograph. My batting inners are rather unexciting, but for those of you who really must know, they are Gray Nicolls fingerless inners. I have never worn inners in my life, but there must be some logical reason why the professionals wear them - it certainly isn't to keep their hands warm!

The second piece of un-photographed equipment is what is euphemistically called a "protector" or colloquially a "box". It is a Gray Nicolls box - but no, I am not taking a picture of it as some things should always be sacred.

My batting gloves are very very cool looking, being the Puma Ballistic 3000 and the Puma Iridium 3000. Both sets of gloves offer wonderful protection, yet are light as well. here is what they look like:

To get into cost comparisons again with the early 1980's when I was tearing it up on suburban grounds in Melbourne's Northen Suburbs, the crème de la crème batting gloves were the Saint Peter pillow style gloves that test batsmen like Tony Grieg, Rod Marsh, Mike Brearley etc wore.

Whatever happened to SP?

A handful of lucky blokes at my club had them and they retailed at around seventy dollars a pair back then. Again, that is the equivalent of batting gloves costing two hundred and eighty dollars now - an absurd amount. My new sensational batting gloves cost me fifty five and forty five dollars respectively. They are better and lighter than those SP gloves from twenty five years ago, and way, way cheaper!

My thigh pad is a Puma Iridium range thigh pad and is sensational. Again, I rarely get hit on the thigh pad, but I still have painful memories of being hit there as a kid and it hurt like hell. Anyone who has ever been hit there without wearing a thigh pad knows exactly what I am talking about!

Recently at training I missed a ball on my body from a really fast bowler from our club and hit me on my thigh pad and I didn't feel a thing. So it is not only light - but it does its' job sensationally well.

My pads are from the Puma range as well and are the Iridium Force range. They are nice and light, are comfortable and look great. They remind me of the Saint Peter pads from twenty five years ago which were the top end pads in those days with their lightness. They used to cost about ninety dollars - about three hundred and sixty dollars in today's dollars. These Puma pads cost me all of thirty nine dollars.

Top of the range cricket bats in the early 1980's cost about three hundred dollars - which translates to about twelve hundred dollars in today's money. A top of the range bat these days would cost about seven hundred dollars - still rather expensive for the average suburban cricketer - but nowhere near the pain we had to endure all those years ago.

So it is quite remarkable that over the years cricket equipment has actually become comparatively cheaper in direct inverted proportion to society which has seen the cost of living rise. It makes me appreciate the sacrifices my immigrant parents made for me all the more for purchasing all that equipment for me back when I was a young lad for what must have been a small fortune for a blue collar working class family. They didn't even understand the game - but they knew that I loved it and they did not want me to miss out on experiences.

Mum and dad - I just want to say I love you and thanks for everything

More soon!

Vic Nicholas

Melbourne