I remember this day well, Botham showed his true self and batted himself into the history books. I think the estimated price will be knocked for six,

No offence, but did I miss something? When did GizMag become a sports news publication?
For an organization that normally reports on science and technology, it appears that this particular article is not even - ahem - in the ballpark.
If there had been a report on some technological development with regards to the design of the bat, I suppose the article would at least have made some sense. It otherwise appears to be severely out of place.

Who cares?, it\'s not Bradman\'s

SarahM Pull your head in. The Editor knows best!

Sarah did you read the article? \"If it is indeed possible for a piece of sporting equipment to contain magic\"
they are reporting on magic...... you dont see magic everyday

The bat is worth close to whatever an old piece of wood is worth. If you believe that the magic lies in that plank instead of the man operating it, than you probably believe the makeup advertisements as well, and think that beautiful movies on your DVD are thanks to the plastic and print industries, rather than being the work of the real people in cinema. The article is interesting by itself, but putting it in Gizmag seems displaced to me.

SarahM I\'m with you on this one and that said, from a technology point of view it might be important to appreciate that the bat used was really little more than a chunk of wood, unlike the much lighter and more powerful bats used in today\'s cricket. The improvements in bat design though come with a cost as today\'s bats have about one fifth of the durability of the older bats.
What this means then is that the ability for a batsman to maintain control as fatigue sets in becomes problematic. Botham\'s innings was as much about overcoming the limitations of technology as it was for setting a rampant opposition to the stalls. I saw this game on TV and couldn\'t believe it, especially when the \'chook\' then rolled us in what seemed like a blink of an eye! The big winner was Duncan Fearnly, a so so bat maker (imo) that saw sales spike!

Loved the story. Long live the magic all around us in such a tech oriented society!

I could pay $0.50 and use it to start fire in my fireplace

LOL @ \'The Editor knows best!\'
I\'ll believe that one when I see Sports Illustrated showing the Large Hadron Collider wearing a bikini in their swimsuit edition!