There are a lot of people yamming about this - so i thought i'd contribute my bit as well

For people who do not know what a mongoose bat is, check -

Why is it called a mongoose bat? Lay it on its face on the ground and check how it looks - Fat wooden bottom and long handle(long tail) - looks like a mongoose doesn't it?

The mongoose bat is not a new concept. Ask Waqar Younis, SHoaib Akhtar, Javagal Srinath, Muralitharan or maybe Fannie De Villiers.These are the people who have been known to use the long handle! It is an age old phenomenon. Tailenders were known to use the long handle because all they knew in batting was to swing the bat and swat the ball out of the park.

IPL 20-20 cricket saw this bat being marketed vociferously - Not without reason I say. But theres a catch here. When Hayden famously used the mongoose bat in the last match played by Chennai Super Kings, he did not start his innings with it. He brought it in, once he was confident that the ball was hitting the sweet spot quite frequently. Well this is a relief considering how IPL/T-20 cricket has forced a number of players to forget batting techniques and behave like tail-enders with the bat.

The mongoose bat makes a pretty good marketing statement for this leg of the IPL. This time, IPL had spoken about going GREEN. They've marketed that aspect pretty poorly though - publishing messages such as 'Watch it on one TV'. Heres an idea - get the mongoose bat officially into the IPL and send a message how you are going about cricket with less wood.

One extremely important aspect that has come out of  this bat is the 37 signals principle - Do only as much is required ; In fact do less than what is required but do it well. The makers of this bat have put their thoughts quite clearly, simply. 33% of the wood has been sliced from the top and stuck at the bottom. While doing so, the analysis has completely gone into the range of the 'sweet area' of the bat. Now the bat looks more like a club - like the ones they use in baseball. Simple thinking - serves the purpose pretty well.

Lastly, once this concept picks up and finds favor with people in addition to Symonds, Hayden and Gayle, I would like to see how this shapes up. Currently, the sponsors put their ads on the top 33 pc of the bats – which is non existent in the mongoose. It’ll be interesting to see how sponsors work around this.

Thats it for now. Enjoy the IPL ... Cheers.