I HAD a double take this week when I saw Gray-Nicolls were selling a cricket bat for £525.

The cost of cricket kit these days is a joke. Parents must be pulling their hair out, but my advice is not to buy into it.

I don’t think I have ever spent more than £60 on a cricket bat. Expensive kit does not make you play better – Ricky Ponting could have made a ton with a chopstick.

My old mate Derek Kay was a fantastic player, but he used to turn up with his kit in two plastic shopping bags – and he was a wicket keeper.

These days, I see the gear kids bring into dressing rooms – different pads for batting and keeping, different shoes for batting and bowling, special Lycra underwear, long and short-sleeved shirts, long and short sleeved jumpers, three different pairs of gloves, helmets, elbow guards, thigh guards, even chest guards if you’re a soft lad.

I like to see batsmen come to the crease with new kit then ask them was it worth it when they get out for a duck – all the gear but no idea.

My tip is, make friends with the pro and get first dibs on their kit. They don’t take it home at the end of the season because of weight restrictions on flights.

It’s served me well over the years. I still have Wasim Raja’s box in my bag from my days at Rammy, and I think he was the pro in the 1970s. Waste not want not, that’s what I say.