How Kashmir's bat manufactures are looking to turn the tide

Tahir Ibn Manzoor 23:42 02/06/2016
We share an insight into the world of willow in Kashmir.

As the Kashmir bat industry battles for survival, freelance sports journalist Tahir Ibn Manzoor and Kashmir-based photojournalist Shabir Bhat visit south Kashmir to learn about the production of cricket bats in the region.

After meeting around 20 owners of bat-making units to explore the business process, its distribution network – both local and national – and the inner workings of the fragmented units after the heavy loss to machinery and stock in crores as a result of the September 2014 flashfloods in this tiny Himalayan region.

We in Kashmir remember having a genuine fascination with cricket bats. Growing up, most children from this corner of the world are obsessed with sports, especially cricket and the instruments that send cricket balls over streets, paddy fields and congealed maidans. This memory is littered with priceless moments finding scrap pieces of wood in the backyard and crafting them into bats with the help of an axe.

They would be marked with imitated logos of different bat brands; ‘Hero Honda’ and the like being inked on to them in pen and Bubble Gum stickers that were kept between the pages of our school books.

Everything was done by hand in those days, with hardly any machinery available in the Kashmir bat making units. Before the partition Kashmir clefts, including white willow, were transported to Sialkot’s sport industry to be steam-heated or boiled then clamped in a hydraulic press to curve them  with a hockey bend before leaving as a cricket bat.

Sialkot, known as the sports goods capital of Asia, is situated in the foothills of the mountains and considered an ideal place to grow willow. Soon after the independence skilled craftsmen, entrepreneurs and workers decided to up root from Sialkot and head for Jalandhar in India.

Those masters of willow in Kashmir then turned toward the newly established centres in Jalandhar and Meerut as the demand for cricket bats began to grow across India.

Over eight villages, comprising of Chersoo, Jawbhara, Halamullah, Bijbehara, Sangam, Sethar, Mirzapor and Pujteng in south Kashmir are considered the epicenter of bat-making. It is a place that has born the brunt of road widening and seen many factories displaced over the past 10 years.

The Edge: The craft at display at one of the units in south Kashmir. Photo: Shabir Bhat

The Edge: The craft at display at one of the units in south Kashmir. Photo: Shabir Bhat

Kashmir is unique as the only place in India where willow trees are grown, something that was once a huge asset but now makes its prime product a tricky commodity to accommodate due to the very nature of nature. The willows are now considered the biggest handicap to the industry as they take at least 15-20 years to grow to the size required to form the base of a cricket bat.

The floods in Kashmir pushed the region’s bat industry and its manufactures into a corner. They were left with a choice between calling it quits or fighting to ensure their long-term survival. Making things even more complicated are that Jalandhar and Meerut control the transportation of the product.

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Despite the tourist rich summer months were people hope to make merry out of sales, most of bat manufacturers in south Kashmir we find sitting idle, running into post-flood debt.

That fateful month of September two years ago the bat makers had stocks piled hoping to cash-in on the fervour of the 50-over World Cup, only to see it all washed away by the gushing waters. And now, they struggle to entice a rush of customers to their showrooms, adding to their bitterness at a lack of government support.

Bashir Ahmad Wani, 35, has run one of the oldest companies of its kind -the ‘Bashir Sports Industry’ (BSI) – since 2003. His family started the company in 1965 in Bijbehara and has now produced 8,000 bats since 2014, a dramatic drop from the approximate 35,000 it was making annually until 2013. He says he lost 6,800 clefts in 2014 and values the damage to his machinery and raw material in those floods at 30 lakh.

“Why our government don’t provide us the export licenses as this industry has the great potential for employing over 15000 people more in this industry after having its own production-cum-process centre,” questions Wani.

Shahid Majeed, a graduate student, who in 2012 started helping his father at his unit M Sons and Sports in Chersoo area of Awantipora, also feels the pinch.

“Before the floods, we sold around 10,000 bats every year and our annual expenditure was around 20 lakh. After flood-furry we are able to send 5,000 bats annually and the preparation not go as we plan it out. Most of the units are struggling to survive for a long-run,” said the 24-year-old.

Disgruntled, yet still incredibly proud, bat-makers are now more common than the region’s most famous export. Former president of the Cricket Bat Manufacturers Association, Nazir Ahmad Salroo, told us: “In September 2014, during the floods the factories remained drowned for days under 8-13 feet waters.

“The industry had suffered massively after the raw material washed away. Thousands of clefts were useless after it changed its colour and there was extensive damage to light and heavy machinery in crores. There seems no demand for Kashmir willow as it was having before.”

Soon after the floods, a proposal was sent to Government of India for relief and rehabilitation of industries that suffered a massive loss as a result of the 2014 floods. According to reports, Kashmir’s director of its Industries and Commerce Department, Nazim Khan, sought Rs 250 crores for the compensation of flood-hit industries in Kashmir.

Willow suppliers estimate the loss of cut wood at around 10 crore. According to the Cricket Bat Manufactures Association, the damage to the trees could result in a shortfall of whopping 700,000 cricket bats up until 2020. Most owners have now shut their units down with losses to the industry claimed to be Rs 80 crore, while in Jammu it’s little different, with only 25 factories functional.

THE ART: Shakeel Ahmad Bhat, 35, is pasting 9 different stickers on bats at FSI for four hours a day. Photo: Shabir Bhat

THE ART: Shakeel Ahmad Bhat, 35, is pasting 9 different stickers on bats at FSI for four hours a day. Photo: Shabir Bhat

In 2013, the cricket bat industry had a turnover of Rs 114 crore annually. In 1970 to 1980, there were only 37 active units in Anantnag and Pulwama. Now there are 440 units, 260 in Anantnag alone. All of which are desperately trying to remain afloat.

“The seasonal Kashmir willow bats are used by the club level cricket players as they are affordable than English bats,” said Shakeel Ahamd, a labourer at one of the bat-making units in Chersoo, Anantnag.

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Each factory produces 17,000 bats on an average per year. The cricket bat industry in Kashmir exports over 55 lakh bats during that time at a price ranging from two hundred and fifty rupees to one thousand per bat. Equally, 1o lakh bats are being sold in local markets.

There is hope, though, and according to the Cricket Bat Manufacturers Association, if the Government provides the right business opportunity to the manufacturers, those in Kashmir can still flourish and aid the local economy.

There are about 300 registered and 100 unregistered large, medium and small bat making facilities providing direct and indirect employment to approximately 40,000 workers in the south Kashmir of Anantnag district.

Most of the bat-making units are in the small to medium scale and employ staff in the region of 10-40. In Kashmir the production is termed low because the units are not fully mechanised, only 50% of them using the latest technology. Sporadic electricity doesn’t help matters.

“To be little honest, I’m all here to buy some bats for my children and to witness how the bats are being processed in these units. After Parvez Rasool, I’m expecting many players from Kashmir would break into Indian XI in next 3-5 years,” said Lalit Kumar, who came all the way from Tamil Nadu to have a look how things are done here.

The history of the Kashmir willow and its standing as one of the most reliable and cheap pieces of wood available to cricket enthusiasts mean that demand and intrigue will always surround bats made in this corner of the world. What is without doubt, however, is that this bat so widely associated with the game is in need of desperate support and a new lease of life.

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