About Bonsai Cricket

Who are we?

Bonsai Cricket is an exclusive European cricket brand that has their own setup in Arnhem, The Netherlands.

We operate from Arnhem where we have a showroom, warehouse and a small workshop. We sell most of our gear via the website but for you cricket lovers we have created a showroom where you can actually have a feel of the bats, gloves or any product before you buy it.

We supply beginners cricket equipment as well as pro level cricket equipment. Any cricket needs you may have, we got you covered.

Besides this we have a small workshop where we have a knocking machine to prepare your bat. We have a quick turnaround time and are very flexible. You can wait as your bat is getting knocked. We are currently the only company with a knocking machine in Europe (non-UK)! 

We have a small team which takes care of the sales, distribution and customer service. Because we are small we can give every customer the extra attention they need. 

We try to sell Bonsai Cricket equipment exclusively as we can take account for the quality and service. Whenever something happens with the gear or a genuine factory mistake occurs you can contact us directly.

Claims are directly settled or products are replaced in case of any error caused by our team. With re-selling this is always an issue as we would then have to claim it back to the brand which is not always a given. That is why we always try to exclusively sell our brand and products. 

“From beginners to pro level cricket equipment, we have it all.”

Why are we different?

If we could sell quality cricket equipment for free we would do it! Nothing satisfies us more than providing the best to our customers/players and see them actually love it. We distinct ourselves from other brands with our unmatched passion and customer attention and understanding.

Our mission is to provide every cricketer regardless their age, gender, budget or cricket skills with quality cricket equipment at an affordable price.

We think every cricketer should not be disadvantaged due to the lack in quality of their cricket gear. That is why we really want to achieve our mission to (ironically) create a level playing field where (only) your game will make the real difference.

Unlike the bigger brands who charge extra rates for their immense overhead costs like rent, warehousing, employees and so forth. We do not have a lot of these costs, and hence can offer the most affordable rates without compensating on quality. To ensure this we have maintained a very low profit % on our products.

Our bat makers and production team of softs have learned their craft from the best and have 15+ years of experience in producing quality equipment for big brands. This is our way of maintaining the quality. We only use state of the art machinery and raw materials to ensure you get the best quality.

Giving Back

Going through the Dutch cricketing structure and witnessing all the cricket at every level possible we want to give back to European Cricket. We sponsor a lot of Dutch and Belgium National team players to help them pursue a cricketing career. Visit our “Bonsai Players & Partners” page to see which players are part of Bonsai Team. Already in our short existence we have created some cool success stories. Besides this we are also a very proud sponsor of the Portuguese National side.

Regarding charity we also have several goals as where we want to start a foundation to give back to the (cricket) community outside of Europe. As spending some time over in Pakistan we noticed that there is a lot of talent in Pakistan and Afghanistan. We have seen some outstanding players that were winning pressure matches on their own against quality opponents.

As talented as they are, the talented kids are mostly coming from poor backgrounds. Their parents will not and often can`t invest in their future as a cricketer. Most of them end up learning some handcraft like pipe fitting, welding or end up as a tuk-tuk or taxi driver.

In our opinion this talent has gone to waste. It would be a dream if we can help them with our future foundation. We consider this a very important part of being a cricketing brand because without the growth and improvement in quality of cricket the sport will eventually cease to exist.

The Bonsai Story

How it started..

As a young kid I was always fascinated by cricket gear. You could not make me any happier than to provide me with new cricket gear, you just couldn`t.

It always was a dream for me make a living with cricket. Be it with playing cricket, coaching or selling cricket equipment. Since the first two did not work out as planned I decided to give it a try at selling cricket equipment!

When I was a young cricketer I did not realize that good quality cricket equipment would have a huge impact on your performance. Now a “few” years later I realize how good quality cricket equipment can provide that X-Factor to your batting.

I never used top quality cricket equipment when I was young. The simple reason I thought it was overrated and besides that it had a certain price tag to go with it as well which made me choose for cheaper and lesser quality cricket equipment.

Our mission at Bonsai Cricket is to take away these doubts and hurdles to make sure the best quality in the market is accessible and affordable for everyone!

Where it actually started and what I think most of all the cricketers have experienced themselves as well. I went to a cricket shop after having many online (and physical) regretful purchases of cricket gear. This time I again went for the most expensive stuff and choose to pick one of the big brands and there was no doubt in this being the best gear for me. Spending a ridiculous amount of money I left the store but I was certain the gear I bought will be worth it.

Nothing was less true as the bat did not perform as I expected it would and it then to top it off broke pretty quickly. When filing a complaint to the store I was re-directed to claim it directly from the brand. As it was an expensive bat I would not just let it slip and send out the claim sending the needed pictures, invoice etc. Fortunately I was still in the warranty period and I got myself a new bat.

I was satisfied about the service at that point. Not knowing that the replacement bat I got was of such a quality that the broken bat was performing better. Now what to do? I left it like that and took the loss but I said to myself that this will happen no more! I wanted to make a difference and wanted to prevent anyone from feeling the way I did. Hence I made plans to create a own cricket brand that would really make the difference! But how? I did not have a name, logo or let alone even a supplier.

After a few months of brainstorming for a name/logo I saw a bonsai tree and I thought about how amazing bonsai trees are. How can something that is so small look like a proper tree. Besides the real nature of bonsai trees I thought the look was amazing. A bonsai tree reaches the most value when you treat it with care, this is what we want to reflect in the products as well. So the philosophy around our brand is that you will get the maximum result out of the products if you value them.

So after setting the name and identity, I then started drawing an bonsai tree and I thought it would be nice to have a cricket ball in the background. No hesitations there and the Bonsai Cricket brand was born. See the result below!

When the brand was born I went to a extensive level of research to make sure I would get the best suppliers in the business but I did not want to source from the big brands. I went to a long period of sample testing and adjusting until I finally found the correct formula. Quality is what we want so I wanted to make sure the quality is exceeding any customers expectations before we bring it to the market.

 

"The philosophy around our brand is that you will get the maximum result out of the products if you value them."

THE BIRTH OF THE BONSAI CRICKET LOGO

Charitable Goals

Special Goals

In the future we want to do some projects to help threatened species like the snow leopard (favorite animal) and help the needy people that come from very poor families and people that lost most of their families through war to give them the proper support to return back to the society.

THANKS FOR READING OUR BIT AND WE HOPE YOU HELP US ACHIEVE OUR MISSION!

Hamid Ijaz, Owner Bonsai Cricket