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Buying a Cricket Bat from India to Australia
The real timeline, why most Australians pay no import duty, how biosecurity treats willow, what shipping actually costs — and what happens if something goes wrong. Written by the people doing the shipping.
You have found the bat. The spec is right, the price is a third of what the shop wants, and then the doubt arrives: it is coming from India. How long will it actually take? Will customs sting me? What if something is wrong when it lands?
Fair questions, all of them. Most sellers answer with a vague line about “7–14 business days” and leave you to find out the rest yourself.
We ship to Australia constantly, so here is the whole thing in detail — the timeline day by day, the actual customs position with the actual threshold figure, how Australian biosecurity handles a willow bat, exactly what the freight costs and why, and what happens on the rare occasion something goes wrong. Including the parts that are not in our favour.
The real timeline, day by day
From the moment your specification is confirmed to the bat in your hands is about ten to twelve days. Here is where that time goes.
Spec confirmed
You tell us your grade, height, playing weight, profile, handle shape, size and engraving. We confirm it back in writing and take a 20% deposit. Nothing is cut until this is agreed.
The bat is made
Cleft graded, moisture checked, pressed across eight stages, splice cut and glued, profile shaped by hand to your spec, sanded and finished.
Oiling
Light coats of raw linseed oil on face, edges and toe. Left flat overnight.
Knocking in & toe guard
Machine and mallet knocking to compress the face and edge fibres, then a protective toe band fitted. This is the work you would otherwise spend three weekends doing yourself.
Final checks, video, dispatch
Weight verified against your spec, face and splice inspected, then we film the finished bat, photograph it and send you a punch test video. Balance paid, bat packed, FedEx collects.
In the air, then at your door
FedEx air freight, five to seven days to most Australian addresses, tracked the entire way. You have the tracking number from the moment it leaves Meerut.
Five to seven days transit is our genuine average, not a best case we quote and rarely hit. But it is an average — a remote Northern Territory address or a public holiday will add a day or two, and August through October is our busiest period because the southern hemisphere is all buying at once.
If you need a bat for round one, order in August or early September. If you order in late September you will likely make it, but you will be preparing the bat the same week you use it.
Customs: the AUD $1,000 rule
This is the question we get more than any other, and the answer is better than most Australians expect.
Australia has one of the highest de minimis thresholds in the world: AUD $1,000. Consignments valued at or below that figure are generally not assessed for customs duty or GST at the border. Above it, you are looking at 10% GST, duty of typically 0–5% depending on the tariff classification, and an Import Processing Charge.
Now look at what that means for a cricket bat.
Every single bat we make lands under the threshold, including freight — and the Reserve Edition is our flagship. A Dominator at $559 plus $63 is $622. A Striker is $426. They are not close to the line.
That is why, in practice, the overwhelming majority of our Australian customers are never contacted about duty at all. Roughly one in twenty get asked for something, and it is a small amount. Almost always those are the people ordering more than one bat in a single shipment — because the threshold applies to the total consignment value, not to each item in it.
Two bats in one consignment will usually cross AUD $1,000 and become assessable. Two bats sent as two separate consignments each stay under it. Your per-bat freight is slightly higher that way, so run the numbers — but for two premium bats, separate shipments are normally cheaper overall. Tell us and we will ship them separately.
For completeness: we declare the full retail value on the commercial invoice. We will not under-declare a shipment to help someone dodge duty. It is a false declaration, it puts your parcel at risk, and it is not a favour worth doing.
The tariff classification for cricket bats is HS 9506 99, and FedEx lodges the customs documentation as part of the service — there is no paperwork for you to file.
Threshold and tax rules current at the time of writing and can change. Check the Australian Border Force website for the position on the day you order.
Biosecurity and willow
Australians know their biosecurity is among the strictest on earth, and a bat is a large piece of timber flying in from overseas. It is a completely reasonable thing to worry about.
We have never had a bat held by Australian biosecurity. Thousands of shipments, not one detained. Here is why.
Australia’s timber rules are aimed at raw, untreated or bark-bearing wood, which can carry pests and pathogens. A finished cricket bat is none of those things:
- The willow has been through a kiln process before it ever reaches our workshop — heat treatment is precisely what biosecurity regimes are looking for.
- It is then pressed under hydraulic force, shaped, sanded, oiled and sealed. There is no bark, no rough sawn surface and no living material.
- Contents are fully declared on the commercial documentation. We describe exactly what is inside; nothing is disguised as something else.
- FedEx handles the customs and quarantine lodgement as part of the freight service.
If your parcel ever were selected for inspection, that is a routine check rather than a problem, and full declaration is exactly what makes it pass quickly.
What the freight actually costs
AUD $63 per bat, flat, anywhere in Australia. That is our real FedEx cost passed straight through — we do not add a margin to freight, and we do not bury it in the bat price either.
Some specifics worth knowing:
- FedEx only, air freight only. We do not use sea freight for bats and we do not use cheaper couriers. Speed and tracking are worth more than the saving.
- Tracked end to end. You get the number when it leaves Meerut and can watch it the whole way.
- Never lost. Thousands of international shipments and FedEx has not lost one of ours.
- Multiple bats cost less per bat. FedEx pricing improves per kilogram as weight rises, so three bats in one consignment costs more in total but less each. Worth knowing if you are ordering with clubmates — just weigh that against the AUD $1,000 customs threshold above.
A Dominator delivered to Sydney is AUD $559 + $63 = $622, with no duty in almost every case. The nearest Grade 1+ equivalent on an Australian shelf is normally well north of that, and it will not be built to your profile, weight and handle.
How payment works
Bespoke bats are made to order, so payment is split:
- 20% deposit to confirm the specification and start the build.
- Balance before dispatch — and importantly, after you have seen video and photographs of your finished bat.
That order matters. You are not paying in full for something you have not seen. You approve the finished bat, then pay the rest, then it ships.
All standard payment methods are accepted. Any currency conversion or international transaction fee depends on which platform you pay through — that sits between you and your bank or payment provider, not with us. If you want to know the cheapest route from Australia, ask us and we will tell you what other Australian customers use.
What you see before it ships
This is the part that should decide whether you trust an overseas seller, and it is the part most cannot offer.
Before your bat leaves the workshop you receive:
- Video of the finished bat — the actual one, not a stock clip.
- Photographs from every angle, in daylight, so you can see the grain you are getting.
- A punch test video so you can hear the ping before it flies eight thousand kilometres.
- Confirmed weight checked against the spec you gave us.
- Your tracking number.
If something is not right at that point, we fix it before it ships. That is a far better place to catch a problem than after it has crossed an ocean, and it is why faults arriving in Australia are so rare.
If something goes wrong
Being straight about this matters more than making it sound easy.
Manufacturing faults. Every bat is inspected and tested before dispatch and you have already seen it on video, so genuine faults arriving in Australia are extremely rare — it has not happened to us. If one did, the bat comes back to us and we replace it. Return shipping is paid by the customer. That is the honest position, and you should know it before ordering rather than after.
The 12-month handle warranty applies in Australia exactly as it does in India. Handle failures are the most common genuine defect in any bat, and that is covered.
Normal wear is not a fault. Surface cracking on the face and edges after a season of hard cricket is willow behaving normally, not a defect — and we would rather tell you that plainly than pretend otherwise. If you are unsure which you have, send photographs and we will give you an honest assessment, including how to repair it yourself where that is the sensible answer.
Change of mind. Because every bat is built to one person’s specification, we do not operate a change-of-mind return. That is precisely why we send video, photographs and a punch test before you pay the balance — so the decision point is before the bat is finished, not after it lands. If you are at all unsure about your spec, talk to us before confirming rather than after.
Australian Consumer Law gives you guarantees on goods regardless of a seller’s own policy, including that goods are of acceptable quality and match their description. Nothing in this article limits those rights. If a bat is genuinely faulty or not what was described, tell us and we will make it right.
When you should buy locally instead
Three situations where ordering from us is the wrong call, and we would rather say so.
- You need a bat this week. Ten to twelve days is fast for a bespoke bat built to order, but it is not same-day. If round one is Saturday, go to a shop.
- You need to feel the pickup before deciding. Some players simply cannot commit to a weight and profile without holding the bat. That is a completely legitimate way to buy, and we cannot replicate it from Meerut. Go and pick up six bats in a store, note what felt right, and then order that spec — from us or anyone else.
- You want a specific brand’s bat. If you want a particular sticker on the blade because you like the brand, buy that brand. We make our own bats; we do not pretend to be an alternative to someone’s brand loyalty.
What we are good at is the case where you know roughly what you want, you would rather it was built for you than picked off a shelf, and you would rather not pay four separate margins to get it.
Questions Australians ask us
Do I have to pay import duty?
How long does delivery take?
Will Australian biosecurity hold my bat?
How much is shipping?
Is it safe to buy a bat online from India?
What if there is a problem after it arrives?
How does payment work?
Related guides
All nine bats in Australian dollars, with delivery times and conditions guidance.
Which grade suits your level — including three moments we tell you to spend less.
Nine hours of craftsman time per bat, and what we give up to work that way.
Still got a question?
Ask before you order.
Shipping, customs, spec, timing — ask us anything before you commit. One of the two of us will answer personally, and we would rather talk you out of the wrong bat than sell you one.
