History
World Racquets champion H.J. Gray founded the racket-making company H.J. Gray and Sons in 1855. The company later began manufacturing cricket bats. L.J. Nicolls started making bats in 1876 in his workshop in Robertsbridge, East Sussex, where the company is still based today. These two well-regarded bat manufacturers merged in the 1940s to form Gray-Nicolls.
The brand continued to be well regarded worldwide in the 1950s and 60s. At one stage, Ted Dexter, Richie Benaud, Frank Worrell, John Reid and Trevor Goddard, who were the captains of all five Test playing countries, all used Gray-Nicolls bats. During this time, Gray-Nicolls pioneered certain bat technology, with major innovations including the revolutionary Steel Spring and the first shoulderless Superlite bat.
The 1970s saw Gray-Nicolls become the first cricket company to use coloured bat labels, soon to become a trend on cricket bats. The company introduced the revolutionary scoop bat in 1974, which was a radically different bat with a weight reducing scoop. A new Gray-Nicolls factory was opened in Melbourne to supply the growing demand from the Australian and New Zealand markets. The company's expansion during the 1980s and 1990s required the company to move to larger premises in Robertsbridge, and the company's current home.
Endorsements
Players who have had endorsement deals with Gray-Nicolls include former England captains Mike Atherton and Nasser Hussain.Current players include:
- Matthew Hayden
- Brad Hogg
- Phil Jaques
- Darren Lehmann
- Andrew Symonds
- Andrew Hall
- Lance Klusener
- Jacques Rudolph
- Martin van Jaarsveld
- Chris Adams
- Rikki Clarke
- Alastair Cook
- Robert Key
- Mark Ramprakash
- Andrew Strauss
- Chris Tremlett
- Azhar Mahmood
- Mohammad Yousuf
- Jacob Oram
- Daniel Vettori
- Lou Vincent
- Mathew Sinclair
- Chamara Kapugedera
- Upul Tharanga
- Shivnarine Chanderpaul
- Ramnaresh Sarwan
- Dwayne Smith
- Elton Chigumbura
- Tamim Iqbal
Current Bats
- Fusion (Aus, NZ and UK)
- Viper (Aus, NZ and UK)
- Jet (Aus and NZ)
- Predator (Aus, UK and NZ)
- Nitro (Aus, NZ and UK)
- Powerbow (UK and NZ)
- Predator Max (NZ and AUS)
Women's Bats Spirit (Aus)
Links
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Wednesday July 16, 2008 at 04:34:57 PDT (GMT -0700)
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