Cricket Batting Tee

Formlabs Bring the Outdoors Indoors Design Contest

Hi my name is Mark and I love playing Cricket.

Unfortunately due to COVID 19 it looks like I will be unable to play cricket this season.  Something which is very frustrating, having won our division last year and after training over winter.   For my entry,  I decided to investigate ways in which I can bring cricket inside the house, without smashing anything.  Bowling seemed like an unsafe option, so I decided to focus on practicing my batting.

When Batting in Cricket,  footwear placement and balance is key.  Good footwork enables a batsmen to place the ball more accurately between fielders, which in turn results in more runs.  One of the most commonly used shots by batsmen is the straight drive,  which requires the batsmen to get their foot as close to the ball as possible.  To practice this shot, batsmen often use a batting tee which enables them too position a ball at different lengths, simulating a bowl coming towards them. 

Using Fusion 360, I chose to re-design the Batting Tee to allow me to continue playing cricket indoors.  Through the use of standard Black and Elastic Resin,  I printed the design using a Form 3 printer.   The design enables me to continue practicing my shots and will allow me to perfect my technique for when I am able to play cricket again.

The components were designed specifically for printing directly onto the build plate.  Although this is may not be common practice,  it minimise the amount of post processing required as no supports are required. This is especially important for the elastic components as it is more difficult to achieve a higher quality surface finish when removing supports.  Additionally a small chamfer has been applied to both standard black resin components, enabling the parts to be easily removed from the build plate.

Thank you for reading!