If we look at cricket’s equipment, we can see how cricket both changed with the changing times and yet fundamentally remained true to its origins in rural England. Cricket’s most important tools are all made of natural, pre-industrial materials. The bat is made of wood as are the stumps and the bails. The ball is made with leather, twine and cork. Even today both bat and ball are handmade, not industrially manufactured. The material of bat changed slightly over time. Once, it was cut out of a single piece of wood. Now, it consists of two pieces, the blade which is made out of the wood of the willow tree and the handle which is made out of cane that become available as European colonialists and trading companies established themselves in Asia. Unlike golf and tennis, cricket has refused to remake its tools with industrial or man-made materials; plastic, fiber glass and metal have been firmly rejected.

But in the matter of protective equipment, cricket has been influenced by technological change. The invention of vulcanized rubber led to the introduction of pads in 1848 and protective gloves soon afterwards, and the modern game would be unimaginable without helmets made out of metal and synthetic lightweight materials.