Dilip Jajodia (born 1944) is an Indian businessman, and current owner of

British Cricket Balls Ltd British Cricket Balls Ltd is a British sports equipment company, specialising in cricket equipment. The company notably manufactures the Dukes brand of cricket ball used by the England cricket team in UK Test cricket, and which traces its origins ...

, which manufactures the Dukes cricket ball.

Personal life

Jajodia's family are from the

Marwar Marwar (also called Jodhpur region) is a region of western Rajasthan state in North Western India. It lies partly in the Thar Desert. The word 'maru' is Sanskrit for desert. In Rajasthani languages, "wad" means a particular area. English tran ...

region of

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...

in north-west India. He studied at the

Bishop Cotton Boys' School Bishop Cotton Boys' School is an all-boys school for boarders and day scholars in Bangalore, India, founded in the memory of Bishop George Edward Lynch Cotton, Bishop of Calcutta. The school has been described as "The Eton of the East". Th ...

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

, India, and has a degree in management. In 1962, Jajodia moved with his family to England. He played

club cricket Club cricket is a mainly amateur, but still formal, form of the sport of cricket, usually involving teams playing in competitions at weekends or in the evening. There is a great deal of variation in game format although the Laws of Cricket are obs ...

in India and England as an

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are consi ...

. Jadojia says that he "lost his edge" after suffering a mouth injury fielding at

silly point This is a general glossary of the terminology used in the sport of cricket. Where words in a sentence are also defined elsewhere in this article, they appear in italics. Certain aspects of cricket terminology are explained in more detail in cr ...

. Jajodia lives in north-east London, and runs the

Woodford Wells Woodford Wells is a small settlement on the edge of Epping Forest, in Woodford, East London. The area lies about north-east of Charing Cross. The name is shown in the Chapman and Andre 1777 map of Essex, and shortly after on an Ordnance Surv ...

Cricket Club. In 2019, Jajodia delivered a Gen KS Thimayya memorial lecture.

Career

In England, Jajodia worked as a Chartered Insurance Practitioner and a

pension fund A pension fund, also known as a superannuation fund in some countries, is any plan, fund, or scheme which provides retirement income. Pension funds typically have large amounts of money to invest and are the major investors in listed and priva ...

manager. Jajodia started working in cricket ball manufacturing in 1983. In 1987, Jajodia bought

, the company that manufactures the Dukes cricket ball, from

Gray-Nicolls Gray-Nicolls is an English cricket equipment and clothing brand and is a subsidiary of Grays International. Formed as a result of merger between two companies, Grays and Nicolls, the company is based in Robertsbridge, East Sussex. Gray-Nicolls ma ...

. Jajodia moved the manufacturing of Dukes cricket balls from

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the Weald, High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Roc ...

Walthamstow Walthamstow ( or ) is a large town in East London, east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London and the Historic counties of England, ancient county of Essex. Situated northeast of Chari ...

. Jajodia specifically chooses by hand the cricket balls to send to cricket venues for matches. Dukes balls are used in matches in England and the West Indies. In 2017, Jajodia was in attendance at the

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as "The 'G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadiu ...

for the first

Sheffield Shield The Sheffield Shield (currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Marsh Sheffield Shield) is the domestic first-class cricket competition of Australia. The tournament is contested between teams from the six states of Australia. Sheffield Shi ...

match to use the Dukes ball rather than the traditional

Kookaburra ball Kookaburra is an Australian sports equipment company, specialising in Australian rules football, cricket, and field hockey equipment, named after the Australian kingfisher. The company notably manufactures the most widely used brand of ball u ...

. After India's 2018 series in England, Jajodia said he has no plans to market the Dukes ball in India. After the West Indies 2020 series in England, in which saliva could not be used to clean the cricket balls due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, Jajodia said that he was happy with the swing of the Dukes balls.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jajodia, Dilip 1944 births Living people Businesspeople from Rajasthan Indian emigrants to the United Kingdom