Monsoon Storage: Keeping Your Kit Alive Through the RainsThe damage is done by humidity, not rain — and it happens while nobody is looking
Across most of India the monsoon is also the off-season, which means your kit spends three or four months in the worst conditions of the year with nobody checking on it. We see the results every September.
Humidity, not rain
Almost everyone protecting kit through a monsoon is protecting it from the wrong thing.
Rain is obvious and avoidable — you do not leave a bat outside. Humidity is neither. Willow absorbs moisture directly from the air, continuously, for however long the air stays damp. A bat that never got rained on can still come out of a monsoon swollen, soft and finished.
Which is why the damage gets noticed in September rather than July. Nothing dramatic happens. The bat sits in a corner absorbing moisture for four months, and at the first net session it marks in a way it never did before — and the owner assumes it was a bad bat.
The same applies to everything else in the bag. Foam in pads and gloves holds damp and breaks down. Leather balls soften. Grip rubber perishes faster. None of it involves anything getting visibly wet.
Why the toe goes first
Worth understanding, because it tells you where to concentrate.
On the face and edges of a bat, the willow fibres run along the surface and a finish seals them. On the toe, those fibres were cut across when the blade was shaped — which leaves them open at the end.
That is end grain, and it absorbs moisture several times faster than anywhere else on the bat. Water and humid air get in through the cut fibres directly, with nothing sealing them.
So the sequence is always the same: moisture in through the toe, willow swells, toe softens, toe splits. It is the most common repair we do, and monsoon storage causes more of it than concrete does.
Two practical consequences:
- Never stand a bat toe-down on a floor during monsoon. Floors are the dampest surface in most Indian homes. Lay it flat or stand it handle-down.
- Include the toe when you oil it before storage. It is the part that needs sealing most and the part most often skipped.
Before you put it away
Twenty minutes at the end of the season decides most of what you find at the start of the next one.
| Do this | Why |
|---|---|
| Clean it and let it dry fully | Storing anything damp is storing the problem. Room temperature, moving air, no heat. |
| One light coat of oil — face, edges, toe | One teaspoon. Never the splice. Let it dry 24 hours before storing. |
| Check the binding and splice | Take the grip off. Frayed twine or a moving handle is far easier to fix now than in October. |
| Fit an anti-scuff sheet if the face has hairlines | It keeps moisture out of cracks that already exist. ₹700 for three. |
| Empty the kit bag completely | The bag is the highest-humidity environment you own. Nothing should live in it over a monsoon. |
| Take the old grip off | Perished rubber holds damp against the handle. You are replacing it before the season anyway. |
Where to actually store it
Location matters more than anything you wrap around it.
- Against an internal wall, never an exterior one. Outside walls carry moisture through and stay cooler, so condensation forms against them.
- Off the floor. Floors are the dampest surface in most homes during monsoon. A shelf or a cupboard, not a corner.
- Somewhere with moving air. A cupboard that is opened occasionally beats a sealed trunk under a bed.
- Not a shed, garage or balcony store. Metal roofs and thin walls make those the worst rooms in any Indian house for humidity swings.
- Not a car. Ever. Heat, enclosed damp, and both alternating daily.
Silica gel and newspaper
Both help, with caveats worth knowing.
Silica gel absorbs ambient moisture and is genuinely useful in a storage box or near stored kit. It also saturates — so replace or dry the sachets out periodically rather than assuming they work all season.
Newspaper absorbs too, and it is the traditional answer for a reason. The problem is the same: once saturated it stops absorbing and starts holding damp against whatever it is wrapped around. Change it every few weeks or do not use it.
Six things that make it worse
Sealing it in a plastic bag
The instinct is to keep water out. What a sealed bag actually does is trap the humidity that was already inside it along with any moisture in the kit.
Instead: A bat sealed in plastic through a monsoon is sitting in its own damp air for months. Cover it loosely if you must, or not at all — airflow matters more than a barrier.
Storing it against an outside wall
Exterior walls carry moisture through from outside and stay cold, so condensation forms against them.
Instead: Store kit against an internal wall, and not on the floor — floors are the dampest surface in most Indian homes during monsoon.
Drying it with heat
A hair dryer, a radiator, direct sun on a balcony. It feels like the obvious fix for a damp bat.
Instead: Heat dries willow too fast and unevenly, which cracks the finish and can split the blade. Room temperature and patience is the only safe method — it is slower and it is the one that works.
Leaving it in the kit bag
The bag is where everything already lives, so it seems like the natural place.
Instead: A closed bag with pads, gloves and shoes in it is the highest-humidity environment you own. Everything in there is breathing damp air at everything else. Empty it before the break, not after.
Oiling it heavily before storage
More oil sounds like more protection against drying out.
Instead: One teaspoon, no more. Over-oiling is more damaging than under-oiling — oil-saturated fibres lose rigidity permanently, and monsoon air is not drying your bat out anyway. It is doing the opposite.
Forgetting about it until the season
Three or four months is a long time for something to go wrong unobserved.
Instead: Check it once mid-storage. Ten minutes in August tells you whether anything is developing, when there is still time to deal with it.
The rest of the kit
| Item | What monsoon does | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Batting pads | Foam holds damp and breaks down. Mould on the facing. | Air before storing, store flat not folded, off the floor. Wipe with a damp cloth only — never machine wash. |
| Gloves | Same, plus the palm leather stiffens as it dries unevenly. | Air thoroughly, store flat, do not stack anything on them. |
| Thigh guard | Foam compresses and holds moisture in the folds. | Store flat. A fold left for four months becomes permanent. |
| Leather balls | Leather softens in damp, hardens in heat. | In a box, cool and dry. Never loose in a kit bag, never in a car. |
| Kit bag | Traps humidity, develops mould, wheels seize. | Empty it, air it, store it open rather than zipped shut. |
| Grips | Rubber perishes with time and damp. | Nothing — replace them before the season regardless. |
Check it once in the middle
Three or four months is a long time for something to go wrong unobserved. Ten minutes halfway through the monsoon tells you whether anything is developing while there is still time to act.
Look for: a toe that feels soft or looks swollen, any mould on pads or the bag, a face that has gone pale and dry, and saturated silica or newspaper.
When the rains stop
The audit that starts your pre-season, and it should happen six weeks before your first match rather than the week before.
- Press a thumbnail into the face. Fine hairlines running with the grain are normal. A crack that opens under pressure is not.
- Check the toe for swelling or softness. If it is damp, let it dry fully — weeks, not days — before you oil it or knock it in.
- Check the splice. Any movement in the handle means stop using it and send a photograph.
- Press the foam in pads, gloves and the thigh guard. If you can feel impact through it, it has gone.
- Re-oil only if dry. Press a thumbnail along the face — if a faint trace of oil appears, it has enough. If the nail comes away clean, one light coat.
- New grips. All of them, not the ones that look bad.
If something has gone wrong, send us photographs on WhatsApp. We repair bats of any brand, and we will tell you which damage is cosmetic, what is worth repairing and what is not — which is a far better conversation to have in August than in October.
Our six-week pre-season countdown picks up from here.
Questions players ask
How do I store a cricket bat during the monsoon? +
Cool, dry, off the floor, against an internal wall rather than an exterior one, and out of the kit bag. Give it one light coat of raw linseed oil before it goes away, cover it loosely if at all, and check it once mid-season. Airflow matters more than any barrier you put around it.
Should I wrap my bat in plastic during monsoon? +
No. A sealed plastic bag traps the humid air that was already inside it, so the bat spends months in its own damp atmosphere. If you want to cover it, do so loosely so air can move. A bat cover or a cotton sleeve is fine; a sealed bag is the worst option.
Does humidity damage a cricket bat? +
Yes, and more quietly than rain does. Willow absorbs moisture from the air, and the toe absorbs it fastest because it is end grain - the fibres are cut open there. A bat that never got wet can still come out of a monsoon with a swollen, softened toe.
Why does the toe of a cricket bat get damaged in monsoon? +
Because it is end grain. The face and edges have fibres running along them with a finish sealing the surface, but the toe is where those fibres were cut across, leaving them open. It absorbs moisture several times faster than anywhere else on the blade, and swelling and splitting follow.
Can I use silica gel to protect my cricket kit? +
Yes, and it is worth doing. Silica gel sachets in a storage box or near stored kit absorb ambient moisture. They saturate, so replace or dry them out periodically rather than assuming they work all season. They are a help rather than a solution - airflow and location matter more.
Does newspaper work for storing cricket equipment? +
It absorbs moisture, which is genuinely useful, but only until it is saturated. Newspaper left in place for a whole monsoon stops absorbing and starts holding damp against whatever it is wrapped around. If you use it, change it every few weeks or do not use it at all.
How should I dry a wet cricket bat? +
At room temperature, in a place with moving air, and slowly. Never with a hair dryer, never on a radiator, never in direct sun on a balcony. Heat dries willow unevenly and fast, which cracks the finish and can split the blade - the cure does more damage than the wetting did.
Should I oil my bat before monsoon storage? +
One light coat of raw linseed oil, one teaspoon, on the face, edges and toe - never the splice. Then let it dry fully before storing. Do not use more than that thinking it will protect against humidity, because over-oiling softens the blade permanently and monsoon air is not drying your bat out.
How do I store batting pads and gloves in the monsoon? +
Out of the kit bag, aired before they go away, stored flat rather than folded, and off the floor. Foam holds moisture and breaks down when it stays damp, and a pad stored folded develops a permanent bend where it should sit flush against your leg.
What happens to leather cricket balls in the monsoon? +
Leather softens in damp and hardens in heat, and both shorten a ball's life before it has faced a delivery. Store balls in a box rather than loose in a bag, somewhere cool and dry, and never in a car boot. A box of balls stored badly over a monsoon is degraded when the season starts.
How do I check if my kit survived the monsoon? +
Press a thumbnail into the bat face and look for cracks that open. Check the toe for swelling or softness, the binding under the grip for fraying, and the splice for any movement. Press the foam in pads and gloves - if you can feel through it, it has gone. Do this six weeks before your first match, not the week before.
My bat got damp in storage. Can it be saved? +
Often, yes. Let it dry fully at room temperature first - weeks rather than days - and do not oil it or knock it in while damp. Then send us photographs on WhatsApp and we will tell you honestly whether it needs a repair, which of the damage is cosmetic, and whether it is worth doing.
Related: the full maintenance guide, how much oil to actually use, and what is repairable if something has gone wrong.
Made in Meerut · We repair any brand
Monsoon damage? Send a photo before you write it off.
Repairs on any brand at our Meerut workshop · We quote after seeing photographs and tell you when a repair is not worth doing · Anti-scuff sheets ₹700 for three · Grips ₹600 for six · 12-month handle warranty on every bat we make