No boundaries for Kashmir’s bat makers Archives

The fortunes of the willow workers in the Valley depend on more India-Pakistan cricket The recent controversy over cricket at Srinagar’s National Institute of Technology (NIT) may have triggered a nationwide debate on patriotism but Shahid Afridi is the poster boy for seven villages in south Kashmir where cricket is the key to survival. The villages of Bijbehara, Charsoo, Halmullah, Sangam, Pujteng, Mirzapur and Sethar on the Jammu-Srinagar highway are home to more than 100 factories making cricket bats that are sold across the country and abroad. Oblivious to the…