World's largest cricket gear maker ready for sales frenzy amid ODI WC hype

The world’s biggest cricket gear manufacturer, Sanspareils Greenlands (SG), has sharply ramped up production anticipating a boom in demand coinciding with the Cricket World Cup 2023, and is betting on an even bigger uplift if two-time champions and hosts India lift the coveted trophy.

The tournament began on Thursday (October 5) in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, where defending champions England played the last tournament's runners-up New Zealand at the world's largest cricket stadium, named after Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In the small town of Meerut, an hour’s drive from the Indian capital New Delhi, workers are furiously busy cutting, shaving and chiselling wooden logs to give shape to more than 1,500 cricket bats a day at the SG factory, which supplies cricket gear to dozens of Indian and global cricket stars.

Workers cut, glue, sand and bend hundreds of bats to the exact specifications of international superstars, who rely on their decades-old techniques.

In another hall, workers are hunched over their machines cutting, sewing and shaping cricket balls to meet the scaled-up demand ahead of the World Cup.

Shop floors at family businesses like SG, which have traditionally dominated the cricket gear manufacturing for generations in India, are buzzing with activity before the start of the quadrennial tournament.

SG also manufactures pads and gloves, dispatching them around the world to be used by other brands.

Paras Anand, a third-generation entrepreneur at SG, the firm that his grandfather started in 1931 in Lahore, says they are hoping for an encore to the 2011 World Cup when India last hosted the 50 overs tournament and won the trophy – sparking a frenzy of celebrations.

Over the years, SG has transformed into a manufacturing company that churns out every item related to the game of cricket, from English Willow and Kashmir Willow cricket bats, hand-stitched leather balls, protective equipment, cricket whites, kit bags to cricket footwear and accessories.

SG sponsors almost half the current Indian team, including the likes of K.L Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan, and Jasprit Bumrah.

Anand said the cricket equipment market in India was worth between US$200-250 million with an annual growth ranging between 5-10 per cent but if India wins the World Cup then the market would surge past US$300 million.

Indian cricket team captain Rohit Sharma and his men head into the 50-overs showpiece event as the world's top-ranked ODI team with the hopes of a cricket-mad country of 1.4 billion on their shoulders.

Despite their huge financial muscle, India have not won a global title since lifting the 2013 Champions Trophy but their smooth run-up to the World Cup has given fans optimism that Rohit's side are set to put that right.

India won the Asia Cup last month, beating former world champions Pakistan and Sri Lanka at the tournament, and have all their frontline players available after welcoming back Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer from injury.

WATCH WION LIVE HERE: