Kookaburra Sport
Kookaburra Sport is an Australian sports equipment manufacturer, specializing in cricket and hockey. Named the company is the English name for the Kookaburra, a mostly native to Australia bird species. In international cricket, the company is now the main supplier of cricket balls, and belongs to Puma (rackets, knee pads, gloves and helmets ) and Slazenger (textiles) of the three leading manufacturers of sporting goods for cricket as a whole, the second most popular after football spectator sport in the world.
Even with hockey balls, the company is a world leader. Kookaburra is an official supplier to the Australian national teams and the " Dimple Hockey Ball" the only approved by the International Hockey Federation for international competitions plaything.
Company's history and products
The company was founded in 1890 by Alfred Grace Thompson as AG Thompson Pty Ltd founded. From professional saddler, he specialized in the manufacture of cricket balls, when he saw his livelihood threatened by the spread of the automobile.
The mid-1980s, the company expanded its offerings to other areas of cricket equipment such as clothing, cricket bats, shoes, and protective equipment such as pads (leg protectors ) and gloves. Best known for his Kookaburra is still cricket balls, which have a particularly prononcierte center seam, and thus jump irregularly when it hits the field, what the bowler over the batsman preferred. For the aerodynamic characteristics of a cricket ball, the number and design of the center seams is crucial.
Eight out of ten teams participating in the Test Cricket, use Kookaburra balls for their international matches: Australia, Bangladesh, New Zealand, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, South Africa and West Indies. Only England and India are still using balls of state-owned manufacturers. The specification of the test red Cricket Balls Kookaburra has remained unchanged since 1977 ( the Centenary Test). All one- day internationals and Twenty20 games all around the world are played with the official white Kookaburra ball.
In 2002 the company built in Moorabbin in Melbourne a new production facility for about 70 employees. In the UK Kookaburra acquired the 200 year old cricket ball manufacturer Alfred Reader & Co Ltd with a further 60 staff, and became the biggest cricket ball and hockey ball manufacturers in the world.
Kookaburra today
Except in Australia Kookaburra maintains offices in major cricket playing countries: United Kingdom, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan and India. The company sponsors a youth cricket tournament, the Kookaburra Cup and has endorsement deals with many well-known international players such as the Australian captain Ricky Ponting.