Kashmiri bats make it to Cricket World Cup

SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir

Fauzul Kabir is proud to say that four players from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) cricket team used cricket bats and protective gear manufactured at his factory in the southern Anantnag district of Indian-administered Kashmir during a UAE-Namibia T20 Cricket World Cup match played in the Victoria state of Australia on Thursday.

“You can see our brand, GR8, on the face of their bats, gloves, and leg guards. You can’t imagine how proud I am. This is my late father’s 40-year-old dream come true,” Kabir, 30, told Anadolu Agency.

Minutes after his interview with the Turkish news agency, Kabir messaged TV grabs of UAE player Kashif wielding a GR8 bat. Then a Facebook image of UAE player Junaid Siddiqui, whose hit with a GR8 bat in the UAE-Sri Lanka contest on Wednesday sent the ball 109 meters away, the tournament’s longest six so far. The image was captioned “109M MONSTER.”

Kabir is ecstatic to see his bats in action at one of the world’s biggest cricket tournaments because his bats are the only ones, among over 2.5 million produced in Kashmir annually, that have been deemed qualitatively eligible for such games.

The story behind this achievement begins with a question Kabir asked his father as a teenager. “Why don’t the players we see on TV use Kashmiri brands of bats?” The father, Abdul Kabir Dar, replied, “Why don’t you make one that’s worth taking to the field.”

Dar set up the Great Sports factory in 1974. Inspired by SMS, the name was shortened to GR8 in 2010 so that it is visible from a distance to viewers at cricket stadiums when written in large font. Great Sports, he said, was the first in Kashmir to manufacture a finished bat from willow clefts.

Most people in this trade exported only clefts to manufacturers in neighboring Indian states that still are the largest producers in India.

“I started exploring markets in 2010. We sold our land to pay for my visits to cricket-playing countries. There were no takers because the world had been misinformed that Kashmir willow and Kashmiri bats are only suitable for gully cricket,” Kabir explained, referring to the term gully being used for backyard cricket games in the subcontinent.

He believes the bad name stuck because 97% of the bats made in Kashmir are used in “gully” games.

After the father’s death in 2014, he renewed his efforts and made contact with people at the International Cricket Council (ICC), the world governing body of cricket, a sport popular among more than 2 billion people in cricket-playing nations and beyond.

He was told that his bats come nowhere close to those used in international matches in terms of quality.

“I learned we were lacking in everything. We never thought about the market’s demands. A bat has to be designed with size, balance, and weight in mind. An opener’s bat is not the same as the one used by a middle-order batter. A slower pitch requires a different bat than the one played on a bouncier pitch,” he explained.

Armed with this knowledge, Kabir began manufacturing bats anew, using the expertise of master workers from some Indian states. He approached the importers afresh, but there were no takers again.

“We didn’t give up. We thought that if we have to make it acceptable, we should launch it from a prominent platform, and what could be more prominent than the World Cup,” Kabir said, adding that negotiations with teams resulted in the Oman team using GR8 bats in the T20 World Cup 2021.

Now the factory exports about 100 bats a day to international buyers besides cricket accessories.

Some 35 international players would also be playing with his factory bats, which are reasonably priced between 1,500 and 8,000 Indian rupees (about $81-$430), as compared to English willow bats that can cost up to 125,000 Indian rupees (about $6,721).

Kabir said the bat that hit the longest six of the season was priced at 8,000 rupees. Besides competitive pricing, his firm has decided to exclude middlemen, whose margins could raise prices.

“Although nearly 80% of the cricket bat demand is met by Kashmir, it is unfortunate that we have been reduced to supplying half-finished products to manufacturers who earn much more. I hope that my efforts are replicated by others and Kashmir brand becomes a household name,” he said.

• Cricket World Cup