Cricket basics: How do you choose your bat?

When I used to play, we were a impoverished lot. Our cricketing gear were in various stages of disrepair. Most often, we used to bat with one pad on and so was the case when it came to gloves. The 'box' which we referred to as 'kotagaurd', was something reserved for Test batsmen.

There was ,however, a plethora of bats. We had 'personal bats' the exclusive preserve of their owners and the team bats which were for everyone's use.

I used the team bats. My favourite was the one, which had a short handle( result of knocking the stumps in) and was very light. The short handle ensured that I was more of a back foot player and the light bat gained me the reputation of a nip and tuck batsmen. Very rarely did I ever hit a boundary and if I did it was on the off-side.

At times I was forced to select another as someone else was already batting with it. The method I followed was to pick up a bat and hold it in my left hand and shadow practice. I inevitably ended up batting with one that was light and sort of moved with the hand. Another important criteria was that the weight of the bat should be at the centre. I never liked to bat with one which seems to have its weight either near the handle or at the toe.( I am not sure whether this weight distribution was more in my mind or bats generally had their weight variously distributed).

Now to the crux of the matter, how do you select your bat? Are you like Inzi, just pick up any bat on your way out?

Just to add legitimacy to this question read Chappell's observation:

Chappell emphasised the need to shift from the “old practices” in Indian cricket. “Some of the ideas like the young players using heavy bats need to be addressed at some stage,” he said.

Heavy bats? Sachin's influence perhaps.