Ever wondered that our Allahabad was once the producer and exporter of cricket bats for both National & International Cricket ...If anyone happen to move along the G.T. Road ....and a little ahead of Chowpathka Railway crossing ..you will find a small old ruined building of pink colour ..written of top of it ..Symonds & Co...with a Rhino icon. The story here by begins................A glimpse in the past...... It could not have been possible without the great efforts in the beginning of 1978 by Mr. C. L. Gupta (CLS) & Mr. J. D. Waterhouse (JDW of HDL). HDL are still Hardwood Dimensions Ltd., Manchester, UK. They were and are still importing and exporting exotic hardwoods to the sub continent and all over the world. HDL were doing business in India from the early 1960’s mainly in the export of hornbeam blocks from USA to India & Pakistan Shuttle Industries for weaving cloth. In this respect they were represented in India by C. L. Surinder & Co. and their tie up came in the year 1975. In 1978 Mr. J. D. Waterhouse saw that there could be an opening for selling English Cricket Bat Willow Clefts to India which was already being done by one other supplier. It took a year for JDW to find out a reliable & competent supplier of this specialised timber to cater to the sports market, that being J. S. Wright & Sons Ltd. Mr. Waterhouse approached Mr. Carleton Wright & Mr. Nicholas Wright of JSW who were very keen to expand and HDL seemed a very good way to grow. JSW were already doing business with one customer in India, namely Symonds & Co. Pvt. Ltd. of Allahabad but that was it, no customers in Pakistan and little opportunity to grow further in India without knowledge and support. In spite of many hours of hard work and several & continued visits to the Cricket makers, Mr. Gupta could not get a good response from the market as which he did not anticipate. Cricket bat makers were importing EWC from another supplier and were quite happy with the product and the prices. They were not ready to try or to shift to a new supplier. Mr. Gupta did not give up his hopes. It was nearly the end of 1980 when Suresh Gupta, son of Mr. C. L. Gupta joined CLS after finishing his graduation in Commerce. HDL sent him an invitation to come to the UK for a practical training in the items they were already dealing in through CLS from the UK. These items included Ash wood planking for tennis rackets and hockey sticks, beech & hornbeam for weaving shuttles as well as with JSW for the willow clefts. It was a great experience for a young man of 19 years of age. In early 1982, Mr. N. J. Wright came to India with Mr. J. D. Waterhouse to survey the Indian bat market. A team of all four people visited door to door to every bat maker in Jalandhar, Meerut & Allahabad. The business gradually started growing and everybody concerned accepted this slow growth very patiently. In 1984 Suresh again visited the UK and had spent a good time with Mr. Carleton Wright of JSW, a great man with extra ordinary knowledge of Willow, he was chairman of JSW and the leading authority of English Cricket Bat Willow in the World at the time. He was again accompanied and represented by Mr. J.D. Waterhouse (HDL). JSW kept on increasing the production every successive year anticipating a consequent increase in demand. Carleton & Nick were overseeing the planting of some 20,000 trees per annum in expectation of future demand By the year 1990 our market share of the English Willow market in India was very good, this has since fallen back with the introduction of more suppliers. Supplying to all of the world renowned cricket bat makers in India for the last 30 years and a lot of this is entirely due to C.L.Surinder and Company with Hardwood Dimensions Ltd. With deep sadness & pain,it is mentioned that the factory in Allahabad was closed some 20 years back due to falling supply of woods,falling supply orders and failing to bear the high maintenance burden.Only the ruined building exit still waiting to be razed down someday.
Posted on: Sat, 07 Jun 2014 11:04:55 +0000
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