McGlashan is world record holder

Plenty of Central Districts' batsmen were cursing Peter McGlashan as he took a world record 12 catches for Northern Districts last week in Whangarei.

But most of those CD players would also be thanking McGlashan for something else he brings to cricket: the most popular thigh pad in cricket.

McGlashan is a shareholder and designer for Aero, a Kiwi company that makes bats, pads, gloves and McGlashan's trademark baseball-style wicketkeeping face mask.

The face masks have been doing a brisk trade recently as wicketkeepers around the globe cotton on to them. "They took off incredibly well after the Twenty20 world cup earlier this year in England with the exposure we got from of me wearing it," McGlashan told the Sunday Star-Times.

While professional keepers are starting to use the mask, McGlashan says most of the sales are in junior ranks as many countries have regulations about protecting young players and because the Aero mask is lighter and stronger than other helmets, it has become popular.

Only a handful of players use Aero's distinctive batting pads, and a new glove with a distinctive vent has just hit the market. But the most popular piece of Aero equipment is hardly seen.

"Our thigh pad system is the thing we're most known for, it's what drives the business," said McGlashan, who estimates 70% of first class cricketers use the Aero thigh pad.

"We're the market leaders but because you wear it under your trousers, it's not seen."

McGlashan said other companies had unsuccessfully tried to replicate the thigh pad which he said was "ergonomically designed from the start and we paid attention to the little annoying things that come with thigh pads. With ours once it's in place it stays there, you don't have to fiddle with them, so gone are the days of Chris Harris adjusting his thigh pad five or six times as he waits for the bowler."

McGlashan hopes the company will one day be strong enough financially to sign a major batsman to wear its kit. So far the marketing has extended to bowlers "because they don't cost as much as batsmen". Shane Bond used to wear Aero kit but has since moved on, leaving Chris Martin and Iain O'Brien as the most prominent test players parading Aero kit.

McGlashan admits the modern-looking gear has "polarised a lot of people because cricket is such a traditional sport but it works really well with the kids because they don't have that social stigma, they want something that looks cool and they want to run faster between wickets so there's definitely a youth market where it sells well."

With the gloves, he's hopeful that once "people understand why they look different and how they function differently, they'll take off as well".

What McGlashan is also hoping will take off, again, is his international career.

After making himself an integral part of the New Zealand Twenty20 team, where he did the wicketkeeping while Brendon McCullum played as a specialist batsman, McGlashan was left out of the team that played three one-dayers and two Twenty20s against Pakistan in Dubai and then had to watch as his ND back-up wicketkeeper BJ Watling took the gloves on his international debut.

"I'm determined to get back into the side, the Twenty20 world cup next year is something I'm striving for but I don't want to be pigeon-holed as just as a Twenty20 player because the skills are the same in one-day cricket as well."

McGlashan acknowledged there was a wealth of wicketkeeping talent coming through in New Zealand, with himself, Gareth Hopkins and Reece Young putting pressure on McCullum's status as No1.

"Brendon's not under pressure as such but there will be an awareness from him that there are other guys backing him up and that he needs to continue working on his game. Or if he does need a break from the gloves now and then to maintain his longevity in the game then the team won't suffer if any of us have to step up.

"All of us are striving to be that guy who takes it on."

- © Fairfax NZ News