Cricket Bat Size Guide South Africa: Get It Right First Time

Ask five cricket shops what size bat a 12 year old needs and you will get five answers. Ask what height the player is, and there is only one.

That is the whole guide in two sentences. Everything below is the detail, including one thing worth knowing before you trust any cricket bat size guide you find online, ours included.

Cricket bat sizes by height

Bat size is set by the player’s height, not their age. Here is the chart we work from on the shop floor, in centimetres, matching what Kookaburra publishes for South Africa.

Bat size	Player height	Rough age
Size 1	Up to 130cm	6 to 7
Size 2	130 to 137cm	8
Size 3	137 to 145cm	9
Size 4	145 to 152cm	10
Size 5	152 to 160cm	11 to 12
Size 6	160 to 165cm	12 to 13
Harrow	165 to 170cm	13 to 14
Small adult	170 to 175cm	Teen
Short handle	175 to 183cm	Adult
Long blade	183cm and over	Adult

The age column is a rough guide and nothing more. We have fitted three different bat sizes to three 12 year olds in the same week. Measure the player.

The chart starts at a size 1 because that is where most junior cricket starts. Children younger than about six are usually below the size 1 range and need a smaller bat again, which is a specialist item rather than something a pro shop carries as standard.

Every branch keeps a bat size chart on the shop floor, so if you would rather have someone measure up properly, come in and we will do it there and then.

The South African grade shortcut

For a child of average height, the bat size usually matches the school grade they are in.

A player in Grade 3 tends to take a size 3. Grade 4 takes a size 4, Grade 5 a size 5, and so on up. It is not an exact science and it is not a substitute for measuring, but it is the quickest sanity check there is, and it holds up surprisingly well against the height chart above.

Grade 7 is where it stops working, for the simple reason that there is no size 7 bat. Grade 7 players move to a Harrow, which is effectively the size 7 in everything but name.

The rule bends the moment a child is well above or below average height for their year. A tall, slight player is the classic exception: they might need the length of a short handle while being nowhere near strong enough for the weight of one, so the answer is a short handle in the lightest pick-up you can find rather than a shorter bat. That is a fitting problem, not a chart problem.

The two checks that settle it

Two physical checks decide between borderline sizes, and both take under a minute.

Charts are a starting point, not the last word. Brands vary slightly, most of all around small adult and academy sizes, and a player sitting within about three centimetres of a boundary could genuinely go either way. At that point the bat in their hands decides, not the table.

The reach test. Stand the bat upright on the ground next to the player in their batting shoes. The top of the handle should sit somewhere around the top of the thigh. If it is up at the ribs, the bat is too long, full stop.

The pick-up test. Have them take guard and lift the bat into a backlift. The top hand should be doing most of the work. If the bottom hand is hauling it up, or the face drops away at the top of the backlift, the bat is too heavy for them right now.

Weight is the part people skip. A size 6 and a Harrow can feel very different in the hands even when the chart says either would fit, and the lighter one is almost always the one that produces better cricket for a junior.

What size cricket bat should a 12 year old use?

A 12 year old takes anything from a size 5 to a Harrow, depending purely on height. At 150cm they are in a size 5. At 162cm they are in a size 6. At 168cm they are already into Harrow territory.

This is the question we are asked most, and it is the one where age is least useful. Junior cricketers grow at wildly different rates between 11 and 14. The U13 side at any school in the country has a 40cm spread in it.

If you want a quicker answer than measuring, use the grade rather than the age. A Grade 6 player of average height is usually in a size 6.

What size bat for a 9 year old boy?

Most 9 year olds land on a size 3, which is 137cm to 145cm. A smaller one may still be in a size 2.

That also matches the grade rule: a Grade 3 player is usually nine, and usually takes a size 3.

The common error at this age is going a size too big because the bat is expensive and the child is growing. A bat that is too long forces a young player to drag it through the line rather than swing it, and that habit hangs around long after the bat is outgrown. A size too small costs nothing but a season.

Junior sizes in South African school cricket

South African school cricket runs on age groups, but bats do not.

An U13 side will typically carry size 5s, size 6s and the odd Harrow. By U15 most players are in Harrow or short handle. By U19 nearly everyone is on a short handle, with the taller players moving to a long blade. None of that is a rule, and a coach who insists everyone in the age group uses the same size is doing the shorter players no favours.

If you are kitting out a player who has just moved up an age group, do not assume they need to move up a bat size at the same time. The two things are unrelated.

When to move up a size

Move up when the reach test says so, not at the start of a season and not on a birthday.

A junior will usually get a season out of a bat, sometimes two if they are between growth spurts. The signs that a bat has been outgrown are worth knowing: the player starts standing further from the ball to make room, the bat looks short against the front pad in their stance, or they have simply started hitting the ball on the toe more often than the middle.

A player who has genuinely outgrown a bat will tell you themselves, usually by complaining it feels like a toy.

How much should a junior bat weigh?

A junior bat should feel light enough that the top hand controls the backlift on its own.

Manufacturers rarely print junior weights, and the ones they do print vary by up to four ounces within the same size, because willow density differs from cleft to cleft. A size 5 might come in anywhere from 1lb 12oz to 2lb 2oz. A short handle senior bat typically runs 2lb 8oz to 2lb 12oz.

Ignore the number stamped on the sticker and use the pick-up. Two bats of identical listed weight can feel completely different depending on where the mass sits in the blade, and a well balanced 2lb 10oz will feel lighter in the hands than a badly balanced 2lb 8oz. This is the single biggest reason we push people to handle a bat before buying it.

Does the size guide change between brands?

Yes, slightly, and most at the top of the range.

Kookaburra, Gray-Nicolls, GM, SS and New Balance all publish their own charts, and they agree closely through the junior sizes. Where they drift is around small adult, academy and long blade, which is exactly where Pro:Direct flags the variation. A small adult from one brand can sit almost a full centimetre band away from another’s.

For juniors this rarely matters. For a tall teenager choosing between an academy bat and a short handle, it matters enough to handle both.

Getting it right in person

A chart cannot feel a pick-up. That is the one thing you lose by ordering blind.

We carry around a hundred bats in each branch, roughly eight hundred across the eight shops, and every one of those shops is at a ground where somebody on the floor plays. Bring the player, measure them properly, and put three bats in their hands. It takes two minutes. It is also, bluntly, cheaper for everyone than a return, and our returns policy will not accept a bat once it has been knocked in or oiled.

If you cannot get in, stand them against a wall without shoes on, measure their height, use the chart above, and phone the branch nearest you before you order. We would far rather answer that call than process the swap.