Global sponsors hit India's batmakers for six

When the world's batsmen dazzle crowds at this month's cricket World Cup, many will use bats hand-made in India. But lucrative global branding that masks the bats' true makers threatens the country's craftsmen.

In cricket-mad India, family businesses that have supplied the country's leading cricketers for generations face an uncertain future of anonymity as global giants swamp the game with cash in exchange for TV-friendly logos on the big-hitters' bats.

"Buying players with advertising is far cheaper than investing in making bats. We are crafting bats, they are using stickers. They are ruining our brands, because we cannot afford to give that kind of money, those royalties to the players," says Rakesh Mahajan, director of BD Mahajan and Sons (BDM).

Image: Indian cricketers, from left, Harbhajan Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Yusuf Pathan, Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni test Reebok Zigtech bats during a promotional event in New Delhi, India, Wednesday on February 2, 2011.

Text: Henry Foy, Reuters

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