3m 41sLength

More of this is what will bring about a resurgence in Kashmir - good old Kashmiri / Himalayan hard work, perseverance, commerce and 'Make in India'! Cricket is arguably, the most popular sport in India. Go to any part of India from Jammu & Kashmir in the north to Kerala and Tamil Nadu in the south or from Maharashtra in the west to Arunachal Pradesh in the east, you would most likely spot a bunch of boys busy playing cricket. People work out their social events, leave from office and travel plans in accordance with the Indian cricket team's schedule. Forty kilometers from Srinagar is Sangam, the hidden world of the Kashmiri Willow and cricket bat makers. Sangam is situated on the Srinagar-Jammu Highway in Bijbehara tehsil of Anantnag district in Jammu and Kashmir. Behind the beautiful willow trees, Kashmir’s cricket bat industry is a living, breathing, manufacturing industry, as the bats are handmade at a local factory. The willow clefts obtained from the willow trees here are fashioned to manufacture quality cricket bats. Cricket bat manufacturers largely utilized Kashmir Willow as a substitute for English Willow. Kashmir produces the largest number of cricket bats in India, which are sold worldwide. The Kashmiri willow used to manufacture cricket bats comes from different areas of the Kashmir valley. The trees are chopped into logs and are then split into wedges called clefts. The clefts are then cut into the basic shape of a cricket bat with the correct width and length. These newly cut blocks of Kashmiri willow usually sit outside, stacked up, waiting to dry under the summer sun. The bats are not only popular in India, but also in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. In the manufacturing process, the handle and toe ends of the bat are established, with the blade selected from the best end of the willow to ensure a quality cricket bat and better performance. The shoulders of the bat are shaped and blended to give the correct shape and structure to the bat. The clefts are then placed in drying rooms. Power saws are used to create the main shape of the bat and wood planes to make the bat surface smooth. Craftsmen then shape the blade to enhance the pick-up and weight of the cricket bat and to ensure a good overall balance. When the handle has been fitted, the cricket bat is nearly complete. The craftsmen subsequently give finishing touches by applying paint over the bats and pasting them with stickers and labels. Kashmir Willow is renowned worldwide and is second only to the famous English Willow for manufacturing the best cricket bats. This small-scale industry provides various opportunities of employment to the youth of the locality and its surrounding area. Every family of these villages is directly or indirectly involved in this industry and earns their livelihood from it. This footage is part of the professionally-shot broadcast stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of HD imagery from South Asia. The collection comprises of 100, 000+ hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on HDCAM / SR 1080i High Definition, Alexa, SR, XDCAM and 4K. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We are happy to be commissioned to film for you or else provide you with broadcast crewing and production solutions across South Asia. We pride ourselves in bringing the best of India and South Asia to the world... Please subscribe to our channel wildfilmsindia on Youtube for a steady stream of videos from across India. Also, visit and enjoy your journey across India at www.clipahoy.com , India's first video-based social networking experience! Reach us at rupindang [at] gmail [dot] com and admin@wildfilmsindia.com