Starter Kit. Idea 472 of 500. Cluster 25
Equipment manufacturing: bats, balls and kit, which India does and we do not
The mechanism, from the book
The country's best-known export is cricket, and little of the business around it is built at home.
The first step
Buy one bat and one ball from an importer's shop and list every material and every step that went into them. Take that list to a wood workshop and a leather workshop near you and ask what each part would cost to make here in a batch of 50. Then show the quotes to 3 school cricket masters and ask what they pay for kit now. The price gap is your business case.
- Who pays first
- A school cricket master or a club that buys kit every season, and would switch to a local maker for a better price and a faster replacement.
- What leaves today
- The island plays cricket everywhere, yet its bats, balls and kit arrive imported, and the making margin leaves with the money paid for them.
Ask first
- Sri Lanka Export Development Board. Ask which buyers abroad they know of who import cricket equipment.
- Sri Lanka Standards Institution. Ask which standards cricket balls and protective kit are tested against.
Check before you spend
Confirm the standards your bats, balls and kit must meet for sale and for matches, that your timber is from a legal source, and workshop safety.
Find out these three numbers
- What does each part of a bat or ball cost to make here?
- What do importers pay for a finished bat now?
- Which club or shop would take a first small order?
A comparison from the book
Chocolate. Chapter Four
"Don't ask for chocolate. Ask how the chocolate is made."
Take the bat apart and learn every step. The value is in the making, not the buying.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.