Thread by @ovshake42

On this day, 1979, Dennis Lillee walked out with an aluminium bat (the brand was called ComBat) during a Test match.

But a quiz question before all that.

There were many surplus ComBats, so they tried to sell them for another purpose. What?
(I shall answer this, don't worry)
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The bat was devised by Graham Monaghan, a close friend and business partner of Lillee.

He had been inspired by the use of metal in baseball clubs.

It was merely a marketing exercise, but nobody knew that at that point.
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Lillee had used it in a Test match, less than two weeks ago.

He had connected once before Garner dismissing him.

It was forgotten.

Here he was unbeaten on 11 at stumps on Day 1.

And he used it in the nets next morning, making ghastly sounds.
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And when play began, he walked out with the aluminium bat.

This was bad news.

Captain Greg Chappell asked twelfth man Hogg to run out with Lillee's wooden bat and bring the metallic abomination back.

Knowing Lillee, Hogg was not too keen on doing this.
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Now Lillee hit one from Botham very hard, but it slowly rolled on the ground.

"Hoggy, get out there and get the bloody thing back at the end of this over."

So Hogg obliged.

Meanwhile, the umpires had a discussion. There was nothing in the laws about the material of the bat.
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Amidst all this, Lillee announced that he did not like the bat Hogg had got for him. He needed his other bat.

So he returned to the dressing room, picked up his other bat, and walked back past the door.

Now Marsh decided to have some fun.
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"You are not going to let the umpires tell you what to do, are you?"

That did the trick. Lillee threw his wooden bat down and returned with the ComBat.

Marsh sat outside the dressing-room, amused.

But the aluminium bat now posed serious threat to the new ball.
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This made Brearley have another word with the umpires.

Now Hogg refused point blank.

So Chappell walked out himself.

By then the ComBat had fetched three runs in four balls.

Realising he had to concede, Lillee threw the bat way over Chappell's head.
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Chappell did not bother.

He simply handed the wooden bat over to Lillee, picked up the ComBat, and walked back.

Now for the answer to the quiz question.

A couple of years later, Lillee announced that the bat would make a bacteria-free, virtually indestructible soup-stirrer.
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He probably said it in jest, but Monaghan did not mind.

The idea was pitched to the West Australian Department of Mental Health.

And they were convinced, though there was more to it than an excellent sales pitch.
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The department needed something more durable than the spatulas used to stir huge vats of soup being prepared for patients.

But this, too, was rejected: the staff complained that they were not as easy to clean.

A rare instance of someone wanting to be in a soup than outside it.