Batting Gloves Re-palmed!

Early in my cricket career, I did not have my own pair of batting gloves but used the ones from our club kit. They were not in good condition and our club could not afford to keep good ones either. It was in the early 1980s.  

Looking back, I shudder to think about how in our youthful exuberance courageously faced good fast bowlers who operated with the hard, new cricket ball up the batting order with very poor physical protection.

In 1982, my friend Girish Nikam had given me his batting gloves as he did not need them anymore.  I was batting in the top order at that time.   It was only a slightly better pair than the ones in our team kit.  I was using it in a match and to my bad luck, the ball rose suddenly and broke the ring finger.  It happened at a crucial time that put me out of action for 6-7 weeks and cut short a season that had begun well.  With it I had to miss out on the Under-25 Mysore Zone, a crucial tournament that is often a launchpad for talent to go higher. Just by coincidence, the accident happened on the same day when Hindi film actor Amitabh Bachchan also sustained a serious injury while shooting for the film 'Coolie'. 

I continued to use Girish's gloves as he had by then stopped playing active cricket.  This picture is taken at Poona in 1986 and I think I am wearing those at pre-match practice   My confidence had regained to some extent, post-fracture.

Around 86-87, I happened to notice a pair of junked gloves under the spiral staircase in our club secretary's house where all our club/team's cricket paraphernalia used to be kept. The pair was of good quality leather, having good padding on the fingers and thumb.  It had been discarded because its leather palms had been badly tattered and worn out.  It was the personal pair of one of my team mates, David Purushottam.  Our club secretary agreed to my request to take them.

I had heard of batting gloves being 're-palmed' at some cost.  Why not I repair the pair myself?  What you see this picture is the third re-palming [cotton cloth] I had made.  The pieces were hand sewn on to the gloves.   They used to last well and helped me play with comfort and confidence.  I later added an extra  piece of hard foam to the first two fingers of the right hand, a spot susceptible for taking blows. This came in handy a few times as it took a few blows and absorbed the impacts very well and saved me from injury.  You know, the cricket ball is very hard and approaches batters at great speed. 

The repaired-pair had become more popular than my self-stitched caps I wore for the matches!  I stopped using them after I got a top-class pair from another team mate J.Srinath, who went on to play for the country.  I'm still using them 14-15 years since I got them, though I bat lower in the order, but protection is a must anywhere.  A helmet is another need these days and I want to do something what Mike Brearley of England or our Sunil Gavaskar did in designing their own skull protection caps, some day.

I was not alone in doing such things!

I came to know that Jack Russell, one of the best wicket-keepers of England, used to repair his wicket-keeping gloves himself.  But then I was already doing that - I had  stitched a crude pair of cotton wicket-keeping gloves just for kicks before I played any real cricket in the mid 70s!  Russell's love for his cap and his painting talent is legendary.  I wish we had met!! 

Caps I stitched

Seeing my great keenness and skill with tennis ball cricket on our street in the early 70s, Dr.Shivaram who was in the opposite house gave a woolen cap that he no longer needed.  It was of Mysore Medical College and black in colour with an embroidered logo on it, like this:

I was over the moon wearing it and felt like an international cricketer!  Looking at my head shadow in the sun with the cap on thrilled me no end!  The skull cap with peak was something fantastic.  That was my first cap which I used for a long time.  It lasted even a couple of seasons into my league cricket which I entered in 1978-79.

I used to see old cricket pictures in magazines.  One particular picture impressed me.  It was of Dr.W.G.Grace. He belonged to the late 19th century and an amazing personality.  It was a fashion in that era to wear such skull caps. The unique striped pattern was striking!  

"WG" - see his cap. [Image from the web]

I had also made a drawing of WG copying it from the sports magazine in 1977-78.

In the mid 1980s, I began to play tennis also.  So I could not wear that black 'doctor cap'.  Pictures of tennis players sporting white caps in the sports magazines impressed me.  I thought why cannot I make one myself so that it helps keep the sun out while I played cricket also.

We have a sewing machine.  I learnt sewing skills by observing my mother.  I had even attempted to stitch two cotton shirts for myself!  They had come off reasonably well.  I was wearing them too.  I had also learnt to repair/alter my dresses when it was needed. With this background, I saw the possibility of cap-stitching.  The main thing was the proper shape and peak.  For the peak I had found an old plastic file in my workplace. It did not have the required stiffness but it served the purpose for my trial.   The black doctor cap had got worn out and too ragged for use.  I opened out the seams and separated the pieces for my 'standard model'. 

A new white cotton towel which was not in use was chosen to cut for my first trial cap.  There it is:

Since it turned out well, I wanted to try with better cloth.  My late grandfather's coats were chosen as they were no longer required.  One was a beautiful cream coloured thick woolen coat.  There were two other striped sports blazers from Mysore Sports Club that were of my grandfather who was its founder member.  Pictures below.  Observe the blazers. One of them may be from the late 30s and the other from late 40s, in my guesstimate.

My father wore it a few times for special occasions such as these above.  You can spot him there!

Both the striped blazers had been hit by silverfish, but not the cream one.  Yet, I decided to cut all three.  I found that two caps were possible from the undamaged portions of the striped coats, something like WG's.  It came out so well that it remains my favourite since almost 30 years!  Here it is:

I wanted to achieve the shape of the famous Australian 'Baggy Green' for my cream cap.  

I could not achieve it and ended only in the normal shape.

The back elastic is 'gone' now - so it looks weird here.

In the following slideshow you will see most of the caps I still use.  I gave away a few in the early stages.
I am glad to have recycled left over pieces of cloth in this manner!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13R9D5cKdHI&feature=share&list=UUxvABuHdux16tcq46MziJHA
Click link.

Many good caps came to me thereafter.  But I still enjoy wearing the ones I made myself.