Willow and bat-making: the tree, the disease and the rules on wood.

What the Laws require: wood, not willow

The 2017 Code 4th Edition (2026) does not mention willow. It sets three material rules that matter here:

• Law 5.3.2: the blade must consist solely of wood.
• Law 5.2.1: the handle is made principally of cane and/or wood.
• Appendix B.3.1.1: the face must be flat or slightly convex, as results from traditional pressing. This is the only place the Laws mention pressing.

Only a Type D blade may be laminated, and then only in wood, in no more than three pieces, with one single piece forming the face (Appendix B.7.1). The types are explained on the bat.

The cricket bat willow tree

The willow prized for bats is Salix alba var. caerulea, commonly called blue willow. According to Trees and Shrubs Online, it is a female clone within the white willow group, came to notice at the end of the 18th century, and was named S. caerulea by James Smith in 1812 from a tree at Lakenham in Norfolk. The same source says its origin is unknown, that it is largely confined to the eastern counties of England, and that it prefers soil that is moist but not waterlogged.

A Forestry Commission paper, created in May 2014, says the tree is almost always sterile, so it is propagated vegetatively from sets cut from stool beds, and that it is grown principally for cricket bats. It describes the wood as light and white, and says it recovers rather than fractures after repeated blows, which is why it suits bats.

Hybrid or variant? The sources disagree

The Forestry Commission paper calls cricket bat willow a hybrid variety of unknown origin. Trees and Shrubs Online says most authorities now treat it as a variant of white willow rather than a hybrid. Both are given here because neither source settles the point for the other.

Watermark disease

Watermark disease of willow is caused by the bacterium Brenneria salicis (formerly Erwinia salicis) and was first described in England in 1924. The Forestry Commission paper says it weakens the wood so that it fractures on impact and discolours it, making an infected tree useless for bats. Leaves wilt and turn reddish, and symptoms rarely show in trees under four or five years old.

The Watermark Disease (Local Authorities) Order 1974 (SI 1974 No. 768) gave councils in Bedfordshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, with Wiltshire added in 1992, the power to require infected willows to be destroyed. The 2014 paper, written for a government proposal to scrap the Order, found that councils had rarely or never used those powers in recent years. Whether the Order was later revoked was not checked for this site.

How it spreads: a disagreement

The Forestry Commission paper says research points mainly to infected cuttings from stool beds as the way the disease now spreads. The bat-willow grower J S Wright and Sons, quoted in the same paper, said there is no proof that it spreads through propagation rather than from tree to tree.

English and Kashmir willow: makers' claims

A Cosmos article republished by The Canberra Times on 28 January 2023 quoted two bat makers. Everything in this section is their claim, not a test result:

• Lachlan Dinger of Kookaburra and Stuart Kranzbuhler of Gray-Nicolls said English and Kashmir willow are both Salix alba, genetically the same species, and differ because of where they grow. They said English willow is slightly less dense and whiter, and takes about 15 years to mature in cool conditions such as southern England.
• Kranzbuhler described English willow as hard grain in a soft wood, said pressing compresses it for weight and strength, and said climate change is making growth less consistent.
• Dinger said more lower-quality, wide-grain willow is appearing.

The same article reported that cane for handles is also in shorter supply and that major floods in Kashmir had disrupted willow supply. Willow grades and grain counts are not covered on this site: the only sources found were makers' and shops' retail pages.

Kashmir willow and a geographical indication

Kashmir Life reported on 7 March 2022 that the Faculty of Forestry at SKUAST-Kashmir and the Industries Department had completed research for a geographical indication (GI) application for Kashmir willow bats. The report named the willow as Salix alba var. caerulea and named the Sethar bat cluster. A 2026 explainer, seen only as a search-result summary, said the GI tag was granted in 2025 and that the industry centres on Anantnag district; the GI registry entry was not opened, so the 2025 grant is unconfirmed.

Laminated blades and the best willow

Reuters reported on 3 February 2026 that the MCC described the 2026 change allowing laminated Type D bats in open-age cricket as a way to slow rising bat costs: lower-quality wood can be glued behind a high-quality willow face, so more of the best willow is used. Reuters also reported that the three pieces of a laminated bat need not be willow, and the Law's own word is "wood". The MCC expects top-level bats to remain single-piece willow, according to the same report.

Bamboo: still not allowed

On 10 May 2021 the MCC said bamboo bats would be illegal. Its reasoning was that Law 5.3.2 requires the blade to be solely wood, and bamboo is a grass, so the Law would have to change to allow bamboo specifically. It added that even if bamboo counted as wood, laminated blades were then allowed only in junior bats. The MCC welcomed the Cambridge research behind the bamboo bat, said sustainability and alternatives to willow were relevant questions, and said its Laws sub-committee would discuss the subject. It also said it had limited bat materials and size before, in 2008 and 2017, to keep the balance between bat and ball.

The 2026 edition does not change the answer for bamboo. Laminated blades are now allowed more widely, but Appendix B.7.1 still says the pieces must be wood only, and Law 5.3.2 still requires the blade to consist solely of wood.