ludhianachandigarh for nearly 60 years punjabs enterpreneurs based in jalandhar have stylishly crafted bats for indian batsmen that have tormented opposition bowlers at every cricket ground from lords to lahore now add the state governments homegrown willow to the list set to give indias much famed hitters much needed option of another blade beyond english and kashmiri willow a joint pilot project started by the punjab agricultural university pau in ludhiana and punjab forest department has started cultivation of willow trees in three districts ludhiana muktsar and gurdaspur the project was started in february this year when 66 trees three each from 22 clones of willows were planted in the abovementioned districts the technical knowhow including tree saplings procured from 15 countries is being given by the himachal pradeshbased y s parmar university of horticulture forestry at solan there are two reasons behind this experiment first we are keen to promote wood species in the stagnant water these trees can easily stand the standing water where our paddy grows second is the demand for inhouse willows principal secretary home d s bains told toi the 1988ban on kashmir willow cleft and the 2003 ban on procurement of cane from andaman and nicobar islands have alerady left the rs 1000crore jalandhar sports good industry looking for sustainable options the indigenous willow is certain to give filip to these batmakers at a time when the muchindemand english willow costs around 20 pounds for each cleft its most unfortunate that kashmir can buy anything from the rest of the country and we cant buy even willow from them this will bring some respite but we need to factor in the weight and punch of the willow that will be grown here batsmen need lightweight but thick bats and that is where himachal pradesh had failed to make its presence due to heavy willows says ramesh kohli of jalandharbased batmaker beat all sports bas that regularly supplies bats to sachin tendulkar m s dhoni and even foreigncricketers such as hashim amla of south africa at least 40000 men work daily in the dustfilled workshops of jalandhar as they snip glue and bend hundreds of bats everyday to the exact specifications of international superstars who rely on their decadesold techniques many in the industry however also believe that the effort has come a little late by the government as an average only a 10yearold willow tree produces roughly 1012 quintals of material used for bats