Woodworm Cricket Company

Woodworm Cricket Company is a sports equipment and apparel company specialising in cricket. The company markets cricket bats as well as a full range of other cricket equipment, and have also recently branched out into golfwear, Hockey, Camping and Ski Wear.

The company's stated goal was "to create a revolutionary bat, one which not only would appeal to the eye as something entirely new, but offer real playing and performance benefits".

Woodworm quickly became one of the most instantly recognisable cricket brands, thanks to bright green, yellow and orange stickers and the cutaway edges on their bats, and the flamboyant nature of their contracted professionals. However, in October 2008, the company was forced to terminate the lifetime contracts of their two highest profile stars, Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff, after running into financial difficulties.^[1]^[2]

History

In September 2001, Joe Sillett was hunting in his garage for a bat ahead of a Sunday match for his club side Brook in Surrey versus The Zombies. The only one he could find had a bad case of woodworm, and to repair the damage, Joe's father Bob carved out small curves towards the top of the bat, finishing it by hand and a Black and Decker power sander. In the match, using his oddly shaped bat, he scored 142 not out, and it was at that point Joe decided to found The Woodworm Cricket Company, with its now famous shaped bats.

With the backing of investment bankers, Joe launched The Woodworm Cricket Company. The company sold just over 200 in its first year of trading. By 2005, this had rocketed to over 15,000, propelled with sponsorship of big name players such as Freddie Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen.

In 2007, the company branched out into golf clothes, sponsoring Ernie Els amongst other players.

By 2008, however, it was clear that the company was financially struggling, and in October that year, the company went into administration, from where it was purchased by Sports PLC, trading as The Sports HQ.^[3] For the 2011 Cricket World Cup, Woodworm became the kit sponsors for the West Indies cricket team.