Ihsan cricket Spartan cricket debate continues….

So it looks like spartan cricket are not going to be able to drop this fake cricket bat / pakistan made story after all. some more pics have surfaced of their bats being made in the Ihsan factory…

Now just to recap for people who don’t know what this story is all about.. Jason from cricket store online many times contacted Spartan in an attempt to buy gear directly from them in Australia….however spartan were in no way accommodating and never returned any of his calls or emails.. After a month or two of trying with spartan he gave up on them. A little while later he heard that Spartan had moved their production from india and moved it to Ihsan in pakistan at which point he was also contacted and offered some of these made in pakistan spartan cricket bats. ( at a hefty price )

As Jason always tries to have the best gear first and get it all reviewed on youtube he jumped at the opportunity and bought 4 of the spartan cricket bats from Ihsan…

The problems started when he got the bats…they were to say the least just awful..

[videofyme id=”544708″]

As you can see from my review of these bats i was just blown away by how bad these bats were and quickly asked ihsan for my money back…i was however rejected..

The very next day after uploading this video to youtube i was contacted by Mr Kunal Sharma of spartan. yeah this guy in the video below seen here with Mr Michael Clarke himself.

So yeah this guy calls me up and tells me i don’t know what im talking about and that the only bats made by Ihsan are the kashmir willow ones and all english willow bats are made in their factory in india…therefore the bats i got from Ihsan were in fact fakes..

This was an eye opener for me of course and immediately took the video off youtube for them..In an awesome gesture from Kunal he also sent me 3 replacement MC 329 and CG 333 bats.. i did also at that point put out a new video of the REAL spartan cricket bats to try and rectify any mistakes i had made in the first video..

So we were all good after this and according to Kunal none of their english willow bats are made in pakistan however no where on their website ( that ive been able to find )do they state where their bats are actually made. It was just in the conversation on the phone that he told me that only the kashmir willow bats are made by Ihsan..

So anyway found it really interesting when i was forwarded these images from a ” friend ” in pakistan..

Spartan cricket bats being made in Pakistan in Ihsan factory

This bat here being made is clearly the spartan MC329 triumph which according to the spartan catalogue is an english willow cricket bat.

spartan MC329 triumph cricket bat

here we have more spartan mc329 triumph cricket bats and the MC329 combat, a G4 english willow bat..

spartan 329 combat cricket bat

and here is one last pic of some very nice official looking piles of more mc329 combat bats..

spartan 329 combat cricket bats at the ihsan factory

So what good does any of this information do to anybody…well let me explain.

One of the major issues we have in our sport is people selling fake cricket gear.Im hoping by publishing this information that people will be more informed and only buy cricket gear from official suppliers like www.cricketstoreonline.com or at least come to me for some guidance… Random people on facebook or ebay is NOT a good place to buy cricket gear. pleas email me at jason@cricketstoreonline.com and send me pics of bats people are trying to sell you and i will give you my opinion of what i think…

Also if you have been involved in the cricket industry for any amount of time you will know there is a lot of smoke and mirrors when it comes to putting out a cricket bat..i want suppliers to be more open and honest when it comes to where their gear is made. why people are like this i dont know but this is my current official opnion on the spartan issue. ( please note i have the right to change this opinion whenever i see fit and could be out of date 5 minutes after i publish this blog.)

I dont care where or who makes spartan cricket gear, i just wish they at least could be honest about it. i do however feel as of right now that Ihsan DOES have the contract to make some of the lower end G4 english willow and kashmir willow bats for them. i DONT however feel Ihsan are making the top end $500 + spartan bats as ive seen the quality they put out and are clearly made in india ( and are very very good )..therefore any top of the line spartan bats that are made in pakistan are still fakes ( in my opinion )and if you want the real thing you have to buy directly from stores in Australia..not facebook, twitter or eBay.. if you want one of these fake Ihsan ones, dont pay top dollar for them, i am selling them for $100 ea…just email me..they are pretty good G1 english willow bats made by ihsan, just not worth $500 +USD.

I am happy to discuss this issue more with Kunal of spartan but as usual…he doesnt answer my calls or emials so we are all left to speculate..YOU make up your own mind and let me know via my facebook page http://www.facebook.com/cricketstoreonline what you think..