Cricket equipment makers race to meet a demand surge ahead of the Cricket World Cup. BDM, a family cricket equipment business for almost 90 years, has made bats, balls and other equipment for most of India's top cricketers, and international stars such as Sri Lanka's Sanath Jayasuriya and the West Indies legend Brian Lara. The company produces an average of 150,000 bats and 220,000 balls every year, using willow from England and India's northern Kashmir region. Ten per cent of its products are exported, mainly to the cricketing heartlands of the UK, Australia and neighbours Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Devoid of heavy machinery, the workshop is filled with the thuds of hammers on leather, banging of cork into cores, and the tinkle of needle on steel as dozens of men furiously stitch together 600 balls every day. The workers are paid 5,000 rupees ($110) a month, plus performance-related bonuses. – Photos by Reuters