Yes. Ciel Sports is a cricket bat manufacturer in Meerut, India, and ships factory-direct to New Zealand. The range runs from $143 for the entry-level Surge to $1,071 for the Reserve Edition. Shipping is a flat tracked rate added at checkout, currently around $75 per bat. Because you buy from the workshop rather than through an importer and a retailer, the same grade of English willow costs considerably less than local retail even once delivery is added.

Your bat is built in 5 days, which includes crafting, oiling and fitting a toe guard. Tracked transit then takes 6 to 7 days, so the total is 11 to 12 days from confirming your specification to the bat arriving. We send photographs of the finished bat and a tracking number before it ships.

Shipping is a flat tracked rate per bat, added automatically at checkout rather than built into the prices you see on this page. It currently works out at roughly $75 per bat to New Zealand, door to door and fully tracked. Order more than one bat and you will see the exact total at checkout before you pay.

Meerut produces the large majority of the world's cricket bats, including many sold under well-known brand names. Those bats pass through a brand, an exporter, an importer and a retailer, each adding margin before they reach the shelf. Buying direct from the workshop removes those layers. The willow, the 8-stage pressing and the craftsmanship are unchanged. Only the supply chain is shorter.

Yes, and there is no extra charge. Seven of our nine English willow bats are built to order with your choice of player profile, exact weight, handle shape and size, plus your name laser engraved on the blade. The Inferno and Apex Limited are the exceptions: both are built in one fixed full profile with no concaving, because that geometry is the purpose of those bats. You still choose size and handle shape on those two.

Yes. Every English willow bat needs knocking in before it faces a hard new ball, and that is true at every price. Our bats need less of it than most, because each one passes through 8 hydraulic press stages in Meerut before it ships, so the surface fibres are already partly compressed. Allow 6 to 8 hours of mallet work over two to three weeks for most bats, 8 to 10 for the Inferno and Apex Limited, and 10 to 12 for the Reserve Edition, then throwdowns with an older ball before your first match.

Yes. Every English willow bat carries a 12-month handle warranty which applies in New Zealand exactly as it does in India. It covers handle failure under normal leather ball cricket use. If something goes wrong you message the founders directly on WhatsApp with photographs rather than dealing with a retailer or a support queue.

For weekend club cricket the Vortex at $304 or the Striker at $375 are the sensible choices. For top-division cricket, the Dominator at $661 in Grade 1+. If your role is specifically to clear the boundary, the Inferno at $429 carries a minimum 42mm edge with no concaving. Message us with your level, height and current bat weight and we will recommend one, including a cheaper one if that suits your cricket better.

Seven sizes on most of the range: Size 5, Size 6, Harrow, Short Handle, Long Blade, Long Handle and Long Blade Long Handle, covering players from roughly age 9 through to tall adults. The Inferno and Apex Limited are offered in five adult sizes only, because their 1220g minimum weight is unsuitable for junior players. Choose by height rather than age, and if you are between two sizes take the smaller one.

A Grade 1+ English willow bat from a major brand typically retails in New Zealand for well above what we charge factory-direct, because that price includes brand licensing, export, import and retail margin. Our bats are made in the same city, from the same species of willow, by craftsmen doing the same work. You simply buy them earlier in the chain.

Yes, nationwide. Auckland and Northland: Auckland, Manukau, Papatoetoe, Howick, North Shore, Whangarei. Waikato and Bay of Plenty: Hamilton, Tauranga, Rotorua, New Plymouth, Napier, Hastings. Wellington: Wellington, Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt, Porirua, Kāpiti, Palmerston North. South Island: Christchurch, Dunedin, Nelson, Invercargill, Timaru, Queenstown. Shipping is a flat tracked rate per bat, added at checkout.

Pressing compresses the surface fibres of the willow into a harder, more responsive skin. Most bats are pressed two to four times, because pressing takes time and time costs money. Every Ciel Sports bat passes through eight separate hydraulic stages with pressure raised progressively across the face, edges and toe. That is why our bats arrive closer to match ready than most and why the ping holds through a full season. It is the one thing we do not cut at any price point.