Cricket industry suffers huge blow in sales

The cricket equipment manufacturers all over the country have suffered substantial losses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Manufacturers made almost zero sales in the first couple of months of lockdown. The manufacturers are still 70 to 80 % short of expected sales despite relaxations in norms.

The news of shifting IPL to the UAE might be good news for all IPL fans and cricketers but not for manufacturers as only the resumption of cricket widely can help them to get back on the trail.

Manufacturers could suffers close to Rs 1000 crore loss in 2020

“In India, sales of cricket equipment, from the organised and unorganised sectors, stand somewhere around Rs 1,000 crore annually. It was almost zero in April and May and now it’s around 20-30 per cent of the usual sales, which is somewhere around Rs 24 crore,” Paras Anand, Sanspareils Greenlands (SG) official, told New Indian Express. SG is the official ball supplier of BCCI.

Anand also said that he cannot disclose details of the number of balls supplied to BCCI annually. However, he revealed that they have not supplied any balls since March.

However, the official website of BCCI indicated something different. As per the website, the BCCI made payments to SG eight times since January 2019. The highest amount of Rs. 75.80 lakh was paid in February this year. The lowest one was of Rs. 34.57 lakh in March last year.

Another manufacturer apart from other cricket equipment — Sareen Sports (SS) who primarily manufacture bats and balls — has also seen huge blow in sales.

IPL has created excitement but future is uncertain

Jatin Sareen, managing director of SS, said team sports especially cricket has suffered the most these days.

“Since the lockdown was lifted, figures are between 10-15 per cent of normal sales. Shops were closed for months. Even now, lockdown is imposed on weekends in some states,” said Jatin.

The company exports equipment to Australia, UK, USA, South Africa, Canada, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. However, Sareen informed that SS has stopped exporting goods for now.

“IPL has created excitement but the future is uncertain,” he asserted.

Also read: Fan files petition against IPL 2020 taking place in the UAE