The best cricket bats in the world are made in England and India from willow trees .
A bat is the long stick cricket players use to hit the ball .
The bats from India are in especially high demand .
That is because they are much less costly than the English bats .
Bats from India cost between $50 and $500 , while the ones made in England cost three to four times more .
The bat factories are in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir and they employ about 100,000 people .
The area makes about 3 million bats each year .
The factories have customers in 125 countries .
The cricket bat business brings in about $12 million to the Indian economy .
The Kashmir bats make up about 70 percent of the world market because of their lower cost .
Many of the area's factories , however , have closed because of a serious lack of willow trees .
As Indian-made bats became more popular around the world , more and more willow trees were cut down .
New willow trees were not planted to replace them .
Wood farmers chose to grow different kinds of wood that grow more quickly than willow trees .
He is one of the skilled workers involved in making cricket bats .
He takes a piece of willow and cuts it with a motorized saw .
He then passes it on to another worker for the next part of the bat-making process .
Dar followed his father into the business when he was a young man .
He told VOA that , for the first time , he is worried about losing his job .
“In the last couple of years ,” he said , “bat production has decreased .”
He said about six workers recently lost their jobs at his factory .
On the main highway that connects Kashmir with the main part of India , there are 400 cricket bat factories .
Drivers see the pieces of willow trees gathered along the road .
Fifty of the factories have closed because they do not have the wood they need .
The workers who lose their jobs do not have many other choices for work .
Dar said they can become day laborers , work in agriculture or become sand diggers .
Fayaz Ahmad Dar is president of the Kashmir Cricket Bat Manufacturers Union .
He said the willow tree shortage started about five years ago .
He said the business is almost “extinct due to complete negligence .”
Area factories , he said , receive just half the supply they used to .
Wood from those trees can be used in making plywood , which is used in the building industry .
Those trees grow faster and their wood can be sold sooner .
The willow trees grow more slowly .
Ahmad Dar said he has talked with the director of commerce and industries for the Kashmir area .
He told her about cricket's growth around the world and how important the area's factories are for the sport .
After the meeting , the Sher-e-Kashmir University's department of agriculture sent the bat manufacturers 1,500 small willow trees to plant .
Ahmad Dar , however , said that was not nearly enough .
The bat-makers need many more trees than that .
He said just one bat company needs the wood from 10,000 to 15,000 trees each year in order to meet demand .