Sanspareils Greenlands
 | |
| Industry | Sporting goods |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1950 |
| Headquarters | Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | Cricket Equipment |
| Website | www.sgcricket.com |
Sanspareils Greenlands, commonly known by the abbreviation SG, is a cricket equipment manufacturer.[1] Its balls are used in Test cricket and in the Ranji Trophy in India.[2][3] They have a more prominent seam and are closer together than the Kookaburra balls used for Test matches in rest of the world apart from England and West Indies (Duke), resulting from the thicker thread used for stitching.[4] Also, the balls are completely hand-crafted.[5]
Brothers Kedarnath and Dwarakanath Anand established Sanspareils Co. in Sialkot in 1931. They were originally from Lahore where they apprenticed in their uncle's sports shop RICHIE Sports. In 1940 they established a company named Greenlands to facilitate export of their products. After the partition of India, the family moves to Agra and then settles in Meerut in 1950.[6] Its factory has been in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh since 1950.[7]
SG has been exporting bats manufactured in Meerut to the UK and Australia for most of the international cricket brands. The company has been the market leader in India with legends like Sunil Gavaskar, Mohammad Azharuddin and Rahul Dravid endorsing the brand. In 2008, Virender Sehwag became an SG brand ambassador.
Since 1994, all Test Matches played in India have been played with SG balls.[7] SG bats have been used by Sunil Gavaskar and Rahul Dravid. Although its initials also matches with that of its previous user Sunil Gavaskar, its ownership isn't related to him. List of sponsorship are Shane Watson, Younus Khan, Hardik Pandya, Cheteshwar Pujara, Shakib Al Hasan, Mominul Haque, Liton Das, Parthiv Patel, Rishabh Pant, Amit Mishra, Prithvi Shaw, Vinay Kumar , Suresh Raina, Danushka Gunathilaka, Karn Sharma , Gautam Gambhir , Krunal Pandya , Mayank Agarwal , Solomon Mire, Kieran Powell, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Evin Lewis, Dhananjaya de Silva, Rashid Khan And Hashmatullah Shahidi.
Suresh Raina used SG bats and kit since 2003 but is now sponsored by CEAT. Between 1992-1996 Kiran More, Ajay Sharma, Nayan Mongia, and many other International players started using SG cricket gear there on.
SG Test balls are handmade[8] and at Rs 1149 each[9] are said to be 20% of the price of Kookaburra balls.[8]
References
- ^ "All about the cricket ball". Zee News. 22 January 2007. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
- ^ "India opens door to Kookaburra balls in Tests". Daily Times. 10 March 2006. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
- ^ "Delhi and Haryana players disappointed with SG balls". India Today. 6 November 2011. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
- ^ Rundell, Michael (2009). Wisden Dictionary of Cricket. A & C Black. p. 288. ISBN 9781408101612.
- ^ SGCricket Official (2017-03-17), How an SG Ball is Made, retrieved 2017-07-27
- ^ "sgcricket.com, about us". Retrieved 2018-03-25.
- ^ a b Rudraneil Sengupta (2012-08-13). "1931 Sanspareils Greenlands | A historic innings". Livemint. Retrieved 2017-03-06.
- ^ a b [1] Archived 2006-05-19 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-08-03. Retrieved 2013-08-08.
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