Star value: Padding up for the future

As the story goes, Jagodia could never overcome the fear of the ball after a rising delivery hit his mouth while batting. The pads won’t provide protection at that point, but Jagodia threw himself into the sports-goods business and succeeded in making his own mark in world of cricket.

To cater to the increasing demand back in India for Morrant pads, and to stop the increasing number of fakes, Jagodia has decided to enter the Indian market as well with a collaboration with Sportsline —- makers of Yonkers skates, run by ex-badminton player Virendernath Pal.

So the Morrant pads, and its ‘original’ desi-version, will now be available, in different sizes to meet all age-group demands.

If Tendulkar and his teammates have made the product popular, it was none other than the legendary Sunil Gavaskar who helped this type of pads get recognition in the first place. “I was selling these pads in very small quantities in the UK. It was in 1973 when I met Sunil (Gavaskar) because he came on that tour to England. He came along with Brijesh Patel —- Brijesh and I went to the same school, Bishop Cotton, and he knew me and my sports goods business here.

“We met, and Sunil saw these pads and he said oh…these are fantastic, I will try them. When he tried these pads in the nets, it helped his footwork. So he started wearing them,” Dilip recalls. “In those days there was no question of endorsement or anything. It was just something he wanted to wear. And he continued to wear them throughout his career.”

Jagodia says, it was Gavaskar really, and then Sachin who helped his brand of pads become what it is now. And he still doesn’t pay any endorsements. “It was really Sunil. He started wearing it when it was totally revolutionary — with all that controversy of the ball bouncing off too much after it hit the pad, he actually established the product as such. No doubt that Sachin, who is such a huge star, took the product to the next level and made it a generic name in pads category,” he says gleefully.

The story is that when Sachin Tendulkar came along, Gavaskar was his hero and he gave Tendulkar a pair of his old pads and that’s how he started. “Sachin was very superstitious, and because those old-fashioned pads had leather straps, we had to make pads with leather straps, because he won’t wear sticker pads, like modern cricketers.

“Laxman also wanted leather straps, so it’s becoming kind of a nightmare for us,” he laughs off. “And they all will tell you, apart from the fact that these pads look very modern even after 20 years since they first came along, they mainly helps in use of the feet against spinners. It’s moulded so you don’t have any bulkiness, and they are light, good for running between wickets.”

Despite the demand, the production is limited. “We always have a waiting list. These pads are not easy to make, this is a huge mould, a piece of industrial art. It will cost around hundreds of thousands of pounds if I were to invest in the mould now. Even the process is very technical and long. The raw material has to be heated to a certain degree; then it has to be put in to the machine, pressed from the sides. It’s one pad at a time and it’s a very manual process. We do sell it at a premium price, but it’s still affordable but yes, because it’s a very difficult product to make, at the moment I can’t get into mass production,” he says.

His company also makes the Duke balls for English cricket and county matches, and has been the base of newer experiments that will soon see the light in international cricket. Among them, he claims, is a revolutionary cricket ball that will last long — aimed at the masses, a special cricket trouser which will help shine the ball better, and state of the art cricket gloves.

On the crowded desk of papers and files, and sports material lined up on all sides of his office, is just the photograph of Sunil Gavaskar — playing with Morrant pads.

Just then his son comes in — he too helps with his father in his family business. His name Sunil, as Dilip admits is no coincidence. It’s just a way of saying thanks, and appreciating a great friend.
How the pads came into existence
LONDON: The pads were first made by an engineering company, and the man who invented it, was a cricket nut. He did a sort of a deal with Slazenger, who ordered a set of 1000 pads to be sent to Australia, and he sent them without testing.
At that stage there were leather straps that went through the middle of pads, which is rather unique, and when in use, the straps were pulling through the foam which had no protection. Against an outcry by cricketers, Slazenger cancelled all orders. Suddenly, the product had no sales.
Dilip went to a trade show in Germany, and saw one of these pads hanging on the wall. Interested, he contacted the maker and urged him to work with him and improve on the product, worked on the edges, plastics on the pads so that the straps didn’t pull through, inserting rigid sheet to absorb all shocks to contain the bounce-off factor.
And thus it became a Morrant pad.
Life turned a full circle when Sachin Tendulkar played for Yorkshire. He had a contract with Slazenger, but insisted on wearing Morrant pads.