Use Bamboo Cricket Bats - Cambridge University

Researchers at the University of Cambridge claim cricketers should be using bats made out of bamboo instead of the traditional wood.

A prototype using the material found it was stronger, more sustainable and cheaper to produce - and even increases the speed of the ball when it's hit.

The Marylebone Cricket Club, which sets the sports rules, currently only permits wood-made bats - and bamboo is a grass.

Co-author Ben Tinkler-Davies explained: "Cricket brings you really close to nature, you spend hours out in the field, but I think the sport can do a lot more for the environment by promoting sustainability. We've identified a golden opportunity to achieve that while also helping lower income countries to produce bats at lower cost."

In the nineteenth century, cricket bat makers experimented with various types of wood but from the 1890s, they settled on the sapwood of Salix Alba, a light coloured willow, for the blade as it offered high stiffness, low density and visual appeal.

The use of cane in cricket has been limited to bat handles and pads.