Rising anti-beef pitch sends cricket ball prices flying

MEERUT: The Hindu nationalists’ anti-beef drive is driving up prices of cricket balls made of cow and buffalo leather as vigilantes have stepped up attacks on traders

MEERUT: The Hindu nationalists’ anti-beef drive is driving up prices of cricket balls made of cow and buffalo leather as vigilantes have stepped up attacks on traders to stop the slaughter of cows.

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Factories making cricket balls in Uttar Pradesh, where cattle slaughter is banned, are saddled with a significant dip in the supply of cow hides. It has, in turn, spiked the price of cricket balls by 100%.

“We have to import leather from the UK. This is expensive because it involves import duty and other taxes. Ultimately, the consumer is suffering. A ball sold at Rs 400 a year ago goes for Rs 800 now,” said the director of a Meerutbased brand.

Bigger brands are importing cow leather but smaller units had to fall back on a poor alternative, buffalo skin that manufacturers said is not a good because of the thick hide.

“Buffalo skin is not suitable for alum tanning (the process of preparing the hide before making cricket balls). The hide has colour and waterproofing problems. It is also time consuming. If a man makes 10 balls with cow leather, he will make only six with buffalo hide,” said Rakesh Mahajan, director of BD Mahajan & Sons Private Limited.

The industry is dependent on cow leather procured from states where cattle slaughter is not banned — such as Kerala, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim.

But the yield from these states is too little to sustain the country’s huge leather industry. “Earlier, the price of a sheet of cow skin was Rs 600 to Rs 700. But now it has touched Rs 2,500. This has caused prices to double,” he said. There is no central law on slaughter of cows but it has historically been banned in most states but rarely enforced.

Vigilante attacks on traders transporting cattle, legally or illegally, have increased even in states where the BJP is not in power. Smugglers are caught and lynched, choking the illicit supply chain as well.

Cow slaughter attracts a jail term and fine of Rs 10,000 in UP, which is traditionally famous for its leather factories. Ten-year jail terms are handed out to offenders in Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand and Rajasthan.