Cricket bats of players from South Africa, West Indies and other countries will bear logos of smaller companies which make cricket equipment. Well known Indian players sport logos of big multinational companies (MNCs) as sponsorers. Since bats and accessories are made by smaller companies especially the ones in Jalandhar, the SMEs are mostly unknown as they lack in funds, in-order, to pay large sums to Indian cricketers as sponsorship fee.

 To get around the issue, Jalandhar based companies are ready to promote businesses in the forthcoming world cup and IPL-4 through overseas cricketers. The endorsement fee of these players is much lower than those of Indian players. The current season will find cricket bats and accessories bearing logos of Jalandhar companies like BAS and Ranson.

Manufacturers say that branding exercise will help them in the long run. Few companies have already signed players from South Africa, West Indies, Kenya, Canada and Sri Lanka. However, they are reluctant to share details as they fear that players may be poached by competitors.

Indian Companies state that international brands sponsoring players procure bats from less known companies based in Jalandhar or Meerut. But this fact is never brought to limelight.  As small companies lack fund to pay endorsement fee varying from few lakh to crores. It is been found that big brands thus have an advantage.

Jalandhar alone contributes 50-60 per cent of total sport exports of India. The rest is contributed by Meerut and other centers. Export last year for Jalandhar has remained around Rs 350 crore.