Despite the demand, the production is limited. “We always have a waiting list. These pads are not easy to make, this is a huge mould, a piece of industrial art. It will cost around hundreds of thousands of pounds if I were to invest in the mould now. Even the process is very technical and long. The raw material has to be heated to a certain degree; then it has to be put in to the machine, pressed from the sides. It’s one pad at a time and it’s a very manual process. We do sell it at a premium price, but it’s still affordable but yes, because it’s a very difficult product to make, at the moment I can’t get into mass production,” he says.

His company also makes the Duke balls for English cricket and county matches, and has been the base of newer experiments that will soon see the light in international cricket. Among them, he claims, is a revolutionary cricket ball that will last long — aimed at the masses, a special cricket trouser which will help shine the ball better, and state of the art cricket gloves.

On the crowded desk of papers and files, and sports material lined up on all sides of his office, is just the photograph of Sunil Gavaskar — playing with Morrant pads.

Just then his son comes in — he too helps with his father in his family business. His name Sunil, as Dilip admits is no coincidence. It’s just a way of saying thanks, and appreciating a great friend. How the pads came into existence LONDON: The pads were first made by an engineering company, and the man who invented it, was a cricket nut. He did a sort of a deal with Slazenger, who ordered a set of 1000 pads to be sent to Australia, and he sent them without testing. At that stage there were leather straps that went through the middle of pads, which is rather unique, and when in use, the straps were pulling through the foam which had no protection. Against an outcry by cricketers, Slazenger cancelled all orders. Suddenly, the product had no sales. Dilip went to a trade show in Germany, and saw one of these pads hanging on the wall. Interested, he contacted the maker and urged him to work with him and improve on the product, worked on the edges, plastics on the pads so that the straps didn’t pull through, inserting rigid sheet to absorb all shocks to contain the bounce-off factor. And thus it became a Morrant pad. Life turned a full circle when Sachin Tendulkar played for Yorkshire. He had a contract with Slazenger, but insisted on wearing Morrant pads.