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Kashmir cricket bats lose World Cup lustre

Devastating floods washed away wood supplies – and the dreams of Kashmiri bat-makers ahead of the World Cup.

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A woman from Halumulla village takes morning tea to the workers at her husband’s bat-manufacturing unit through the flooded, mud marked Kashmir willow trees.
By Baba Tamim
Published On 15 Feb 2015

Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir – International cricket giants such as Sir Vivian Richards of West Indies and Sachin Tendulkar of India used Kashmir willow bats in the past with great success.


Kashmir’s bat business was expecting huge profits this year because of the World Cup.

 

But manufacturers’ hopes for a big year were washed away with the unprecedented September floods in the tiny Himalayan region. The raging waters carried away most of the processed and unprocessed willow, and what was left was inundated for too long to be useful.

 

“The industry is in shock and will not recover even in the next 20-40 years,” Nazir Ahmad Salroo, head of Kashmir Bat Manufacturers Association, told Al Jazeera.

 

Salroo said business losses stand at $16.2m “and are growing”.

 

Most of the manufacturing and willow trees from which the clefts are drawn are found in south Kashmir, where water levels remain at nearly 1.8 to 3.7 metres.

 

“I burned ruined clefts worth five lakh rupees (more than $8,000), while raw clefts worth 10 lakh rupees ($16,000) were washed away. I was expecting a business of around 1.5 Cr rupees ($243,000) but now I am ruined,” said Mohammad Ayoub Malla, a bat-manufacturer in Awantipora of south Kashmir.

 

It takes 40 to 50 years for a willow tree to grow fully to yield a maximum number of clefts. In south Kashmir, many of these mature trees – planted alongside the bank of river Jhelum – were uprooted or remained under water for too long in the flooding.

Most of the bat manufacturing machinery was under water for weeks. Workers craft the bat post handle with a machine.
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Reyaz Ahmad Dar, 28, a worker at a bat-manufacturing unit in Sangam area, normally refines up to 100 bats a day at peak season, 'but now the work is less' and he is finding it difficult to feed his family.
A worker shapes wood into a circular shape to make grips for a bat. Whereas international standard bat handles are imported from Singapore, the handles for domestic cricket bats are made in Kashmir.
Raj Kumar, 40, from southern Jammu area, fled for his life when the disaster struck. Now he is back shaping the Kashmir willow raw clefts. The Kashmir willow is considered second best in the world after the English willow.
Shabir Ahmad, 30, had many labourers working for him to keep up with World Cup fever, but huge business losses after the disaster have forced him to work on his own.
Mohammad Hashim Bhat, 75, from Pandang Pora village, carries a bunch of bats for polishing. 'I was 15 when I started working in a bat manufacturing unit. Those days, it was all hand work, no machines, and our bats were better than English bats. But now we have lost the quality.'
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A worker loads a bundle of packed bats onto a truck to be exported to the dealers in India.
Abdul Rashid Dar, 55, owner of Dar Sons (DS) one of the first manufacturing units in Kashmir, poses with a certificate dated 1979 signed by Australian players when they played an international match in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. Only two international matches have been played in Kashmir because of the ongoing conflict.
Imitiyaz Jan, a former Ranjhi Trophy player says the sports industry is on a decline because of the 'callous' attitude of government and sports council officials. Manufacturers also say there has been little government compensation for the losses incurred in the floods.
Rahil, 11, rests on his Kashmir willow after scoring 50 runs at the grounds of SP College in Srinagar, the summer capital. His favorite player is Shahid Khan Afridi of Pakistan and he has just dedicated his runs to the star cricketer.
A worker shows black patches left on the cleft by the floods. The leftover Kashmir willow from the floods has no value on the market.
A young bat retailer shows the local brands of bats, which he sells in Awantipora of south Kashmir. 'The market is down since floods hit us. We don’t see many customers now.'
Workers cut planks out of wooden logs. All the steps involved in making a bat take almost one year to get a finished product.
Ghulam Mohammad, 75, of Jawbara village said, 'I have been working for the last 55 years but I have never been this broke. I was expecting to pump around one million bats this season, but its not happening anymore.'