When the Cricket World Cup opens in India next month several players will carry Kashmiri willow wood bats, but manufacturers say over-exploitation of trees means their craft faces ruin. Unchecked logging without replanting has reduced swathes of woodland to scrub in the disputed Indian-administered Himalayan territory, and bat manufacturers face a bleak future, said AFP. "It's a case of culling all the time and no sowing," said Irfan Ali Shah, a senior official in the government's forest service.
Kraigg Brathwaite and Tagenarine Chanderpaul set a new West Indies record of 336 for the first wicket on Monday as the Caribbean side reached 374-2 by lunch on day three of the first Test against Zimb.