How to Become a Cricket Bat Dealer: A Shop's First Order With Heega

What it takes to become a cricket bat dealer with us

Most shops that write to us already sell bats. They buy from a wholesaler, take whatever comes in the bundle, and half of it hangs on the wall for a season. Then a parent walks in asking for a size 5 and there is none on the hook.

That is usually the moment a shop decides to become a cricket bat dealer and buy from the maker instead. This post is the workshop's side of that first order. It covers what to decide before you write to us, where the terms live, what to ask us to put in the carton, and the questions shops ask us most.

One thing up front. The terms themselves sit on one page of our site, and we keep them there on purpose. A figure printed in a blog post in November can be wrong by March.

Start with your own sales, not our range

Before you look at a single bat of ours, count your last 20 bat sales by size. Write them down: how many were size 4, how many size 6, how many Harrow, how many short handle. A notebook by the till is enough.

That tally is the most useful thing a new dealer can send us. A shop near three schools sells a very different mix from a shop next to a turf ground. One sells boys' sizes all year. The other sells short handles to men who play every Sunday.

Our Kashmir willow bats come in seven sizes: 3, 4, 5, 6, Harrow, short handle and long handle. Our English willow bats come in five: 5, 6, Harrow, short handle and long handle. If your tally says eight of your last 20 bats were size 5 or 6, your first order should lean that way. The long handle can be one or two pieces.

If most of your buyers are juniors, keep the bat size chart open while you count. It goes by the player's height, with length, blade, handle and weight for each size. It is the same chart we use in the workshop when a parent asks us directly, so your counter and ours will give the same answer.

Then pick the shapes and the willow

Once the sizes are clear, pick the families. For most first orders that means Kashmir willow for the boys' and club sizes, and a few English willow bats for the senior players who ask for them by name.

If your area plays a lot of tape-ball and gully cricket, add tennis-ball bats. They are lighter, with thicker edges, and they sell to a different buyer than a season-ball bat does. Some shops also take a few scoop bats for players who want a lighter pick-up, or a Mongoose shape for the batter who wants a short blade and a long handle.

The whole range is in the 2026-27 catalogue. It is one document. Many shops print it, mark the pages with a pen, and send us a photo of the marked pages with their size tally. That works well for us. We can read a marked page faster than a long message.

Keep the first order narrow. Two or three families in the sizes you actually sell will do better than ten families in every size. You can widen it after one season, once you know what moved and what sat.

The terms, and why we point you to one page

Dealer terms are set out on our dealers page. We do not repeat them in blog posts. Willow is bought and graded by the season, so the details can change, and the page is the one place we keep current.

What we can describe here is how we read a first order once it reaches us. We look at the size mix first, then the willow, then the timing.

Kashmir willow is the simpler order for us to fill across sizes. English willow depends on which clefts we have graded that season. If you want English willow bats in a particular weight band, tell us early and tell us the band. We would rather say plainly what we have than send a bat that does not match what your customer asked for.

What to ask us to put in the carton

We weigh every bat before it leaves the workshop. Ask us to write the weight of each bat on the packing list, next to its size and its willow. When the carton lands, you will not need to weigh forty bats on a kitchen scale before you can price them on the wall.

A few more things worth asking for in writing before we pack:

1. Which bats have been knocked in and which have not. Your buyer needs to know, because a new face needs oil and knocking before it meets a season ball.
2. Whether each bat goes in with a cover.
3. How the bats are packed for the trip. A bat that travels with its toe pressed against a carton wall can arrive with a bruised toe.

We will tell you what goes in with your order before it leaves Meerut. Our rule is simple: if it is not on the packing list, it is not in the carton. Check the carton against the list on the day it arrives, not a week later.

The questions shops ask us

Seeing a bat before a full order

This is the question we get most. Write to us with the family and the size you want to see, and we will tell you how a sample order works at that time of year. Pick up the bat, check the grains, feel the pick-up. Then decide.

Putting your own name on the bats

That is OEM work, and it starts on the same page as a dealer order. It is a separate conversation with its own timing, because the spec and the stickers come first and the bats come after.

Balls in the same order

We stock leather, synthetic, tennis and plastic balls. We buy our balls in; we do not make them. We tell every dealer that plainly, so you can tell your customers the same thing. Ask us if you want balls alongside your bats.

Pads, gloves and kit bags

They are in the catalogue too. Mark them on the same pages and ask about them with your bat order.

A bat that cracks in the first weeks

A customer can make a warranty claim on a Heega product through our site. Tell your buyers to keep the bill. Early cracks are very often a knocking-in problem rather than a willow problem, so a two-minute care talk at your counter is worth more than any sticker on the blade.

When the bats will arrive

We give you a dispatch date when we confirm the order, not before. It depends on the willow, the sizes and how busy the workshop is that month.

When to write to us

Order ahead of the season you sell into. Bats ordered in the last weeks before school and club cricket restart are queued with every other shop's order, and the sizes that sell first are the ones that run short first. Send your tally, your marked catalogue pages and your questions together, in one message. It saves a week of back and forth.

To start, read the terms and send us your size tally through the dealers page.