ASMR for cricket fans

Now that the World Cup is over, cricket is going to be in short supply until the Sri Lanka series. To fill the cricket itch you’re bound to have, I have compiled some YouTube channels which are practically ASMR for lovers of cricket.

FANTAIL

This is the YouTube channel of New Zealand-based cricket shop, Fantail. It seems that besides being very nice people, New Zealanders are great at making and repairing bats. Almost all videos on the channel are from inside the workshop as one gentleman takes the viewer along his wood-crafting journey of turning a decrepit-looking piece of willow into a pristine bat. My favourites are where someone sends an old bat to be repaired. Most of it consists of things you would expect, like getting rid of the old stickers and tape, sanding off the dirty wood on top and gluing up smaller cracks. You’ll get the best entertainment, however, if a bat is so damaged that a graft is required.

Grafting really does feel like watching a surgery. The process of the cracked damaged wood being sawed off the bat, finding the right transplant piece of wood, chopping it into shape for the transplant, gluing it into the injured area of the bat and drilling in structural support to get a marriage between the old wood and new wood – it is surprisingly compelling to watch. You can’t take your eyes off it. Sometimes I come back to old videos and re-watch them just to see the masterful replacement being done. The videos are made that much better by the soft music in the background and the effervescent Kiwi accent of the bat repairer as he explains what’s wrong with a ghastly-looking piece of willow. I would have no qualms about wasting many more hours of my life watching this man fix bats.

A2 CRIC.KET

This is another channel similar to Fantail. Featuring another cricket workshop, we get to see repairs similar to the ones done by Fantail. I stumbled onto this channel after I’d seen all of the Fantail videos. One of the things I liked about the videos on this channel was how different this workshop was to the Fantail workshop. A2 is an Indian bat manufacturer, so their factory looks a little worse for wear in comparison. In the end, the finished product comes out looking slightly less impressive than the Fantail bats, but just as capable.

JPGAVAN CRICKET

This Australian workshop has one key difference from the aforementioned channels: they do not have music playing in the background of the videos. This means you can hear all the machinery at work, from the scraped of the wood-shaver to the mechanical whirring of the drills and saws. This adds the auditory aspect of ASMR alongside the visual. However, I do have one criticism of their work, since often they glue damaged sections of the bat. A rookie move, if you ask me.

If you don’t find these videos to be incredibly insightful, then I’m afraid cricket isn’t the sport for you. Of course, if you’ve been to the bottom of as many YouTube spirals as I have, you must’ve come across them anyways. If you hadn’t, happy watching.

Wasique Hasan came back to Bangladesh to eat mangoes and get heat-stroke, and he hasn’t found any mangoes yet. Send him information that will lead to the acquisition of mangoes at fb.com/hasique.wasan