Sports goods industry was developed during colonial period. Sialkot (now in Pakistan) was the main centre of industry. After Partition a number of manufacturers migrated to India and new factories were set up at Jalandhar (Punjab) and Meerut (U.P.).
Today there are more than 700 large, medium and small units engaged in the manufacture of sports goods in the country. These together produce sports goods worth of about Rs. 50 million annually and provide employment to about 25,000 persons.
Jalandhar, Amritsar and Batala in Punjab; Meerut, Moradabad, Modinagaar, Dehradun, Lucknow, Allahabad and Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh; Katni and Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh; Jammu and Srinagar in J & K; Mumbai and Pune in Maharashtra; Chennai in Tamil Nadu; and Kolkata in West Bengal are the important centres of the study. An inspection centre has been set up at Meerut to check the quality of the goods. Similarly a training centre has been installed at Nainital to train the workers.
The raw materials for the industry, i.e. wood, leather, rubber, metals and cloth, etc. are obtained from indigenous sources. Some raw material is also imported from U.K., Yugoslavia and Denmark. India produces entire equipment for football, volley
ball, basket ball, cricket, tennis, badminton, golf, squash, water polo, billiards, chess, carrom, dart, squash, baseball, gymnastics and athletics etc. Besides meeting its domestic requirements India annually exports Rs. 5 crores worth of sports goods to various countries like U.K., Germany, Australia, Singapore, Sweden, Italy and Malaysia etc.