The logistics involved in this sport include big numbers – cricket is the 2nd most popular game of the world after football, with 125 countries and 2.5 billion players worldwide. This means large volumes of sporting equipment being shipped around the globe.

The perfect cricket bat begins with English willow, this is exported to India, where there are about 3,500 bat manufacturing companies. The length of the bat must be no more than 38 inches and the width no more than 4.25 inches. Bats typically weigh from 1.2kg to 1.4kg so that is either 833 bats per tonne of shipping or 714.

Unlike the distance between the opening match of the Series at the Oval, and the final match at Lords (8km). The distance between first and last mile in this case for our client, from Meerut in India where most of the bats are manufactured, to our warehouse in Aylesford, Kent is 6,674km away!

So, a combination of road  air and sea  freight shipping options are used, depending on urgency, value and budget. For a client manufacturing in India using English willow – importing raw materials also means paying duty plus taxes, and the fluctuation of currency values can create a challenge.

Add in pads, gloves, helmets and all the other equipment and the shipping options become complex with multiple suppliers and locations worldwide.

Our team of freight forwarding experts co-ordinate multiple shipments for our client, working with oversea agents and manufacturers to ensure goods arrive either by sea freight to London Gateway or air freight to London Heathrow.

Goods are then collected by our own domestic transport fleet of vehicles and drivers, and stored in our Aylesford warehouse, ready for the pick and pack team to sort and our delivery team to deliver, fulfilling our clients UK orders.

Some of this equipment may well be in use today at the first match between England and South Africa…