Quinton de Kock suspected there was "a lot of hard work" that went into making the bats he uses. On Wednesday, he found out exactly how much.

The trees are grown by a merchant in Essex, their trunks hand-split with a beedle and axe into clefts and then left out in a yard for up to three months to dry. Then, they are dehumidified so the moisture levels reduce from 60% to 14%. From there, the willow is sawn into blades, pressed with two different machines and finished by shaping, sanding, polishing, adding a handle and knocking it in.

When that bat is delivered to de Kock, he sees it for exactly what it is. "A bat's a bat, wood's wood; it doesn't really matter. For me, it's like that," de Kock says during a visit to the Gunn & Moore factory in Nottingham. "I'm not really one to be bothered about it. I take the bats that I have. If I need to fix it to my personal comfort I will do that. Otherwise, I am not picky at all. I take the bat that's been given to me and that's what it is."

Having started his career with the reputation of being a reckless and rebellious wunderkind - an image earned more because of the kinds of shots he plays than his demeanour - de Kock is serious about saving his sponsors from over-expenditure. "When I started playing professionally, I didn't used to look after my bats as much," he says. "I went through eight or ten a year but I am slowly getting better. Last year I used six or seven and I am on my third this year. I try to keep it to as few as I can."

"A bat's a bat, wood's wood; it doesn't really matter. For me, its like that" Quinton de Kock

So has de Kock become an environmentalist, an advocate of sustainable living, or is he just superstitious? "I have a theory that if I look after my sponsor, they will look after me. With pads, I try and use one set of pads through as many years as I can, even though I know they always want me to use the new shapes and colours. I try and do what I can to look after the bats, especially."

If his bat suffers a small chip, de Kock mends it himself, otherwise he sends it to the factory for repair, preferring them to fix it rather than replace it. He also does some of his own maintenance work. "The only thing I believe in is oil. I believe that makes the bat better," he says. "I am not worried about grains or different kinds of wood - wood's wood. I think the oil makes it last longer and just makes it better."

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Vernon Philander takes an almost entirely different approach to his bats. "It's a bit like picking up a golf glove - there is something you really like about it and then that's the one you want," he says. "You've got to have something you are comfortable with, that will be suitable to your game."