WIND IN THE WILLOW

THE KASHMIR WILLOW, LONG CONSIDERED AN INFERIOR BAT TO ITS ENGLISH COUNTERPART, HAS FINALLY HIT THE SWEET SPOT. BUT A SHORTAGE OF WILLOW TREES IN THE VALLEY THREATENS TO UNDO THAT HARD-EARNED RECOGNITION

- Moazum Mohammad in Halmulla

Fawzul Kabeer looks a tad overwhelmed, guiding workers at his cricket bat manufacturing unit at Halmulla in south Kashmir's Anantnag, as they fine-tune the ones ready for despatch. "We have to ready 300 cricket bats for 20 international players in this World Cup. Half the order is complete but we are working late into the evenings to get the rest ready," says Kabeer, whose unit is the only one in the Valley to meet ICC (International Cricket Council) specifications for cricket bats. Cricketers from three teams-Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan-will be playing the ICC one-day international cricket World Cup in October with bats produced by his company, which goes by the modish name GR8 Sports.

"It is a proud moment for our industry," says Kabeer. "For the first time, bats from our unit will be used in an ODI World Cup. It will end the monopoly of the English willow." Until last year, there was no sign of the Kashmir willow in international cricket. English willow was the preferred bat of choice in cricket-playing countries for its knock, grain, light weight and a blade that would not splinter easily. "We would get money for the raw material, but no recognition," recalls the 31-year-old Kabeer, whose father, the late Abdul Kabeer Dar, set up the unit in 1974. "We would ship trucks of clefts (semi-finished bats) to big brands in Meerut and Jalandhar." Kabeer's entry into the business in 2010 slowly turned things around. He travelled to Australia, England and West Asia to explore business opportunities. It taught him a few things. "No one was aware about our industry, nor did cricketers use the Kashmir willow," he says. "We were ignorant about branding and the international guidelines for bats. We didn't know anything, not about the sweet spot, balance, length, breadth...nothing." The T20 World Cup in October last year changed things.