Masuri began with a piece of steel in front of a batter’s face.

Masuri’s story begins in Cape Town, with a former cricketer and a steel grille. A 2012 press release from the company said it was founded “in Cape Town by Jon Hardy in 1987,” and quoted him: “In the late 1980s I didn’t feel that cricket helmets were offering sufficient protection to batsmen, so I developed the Masuri helmet with a steel grill.” Masuri’s own website gives 1991 as the start, yet also says its first grilles were worn by the Australians Dean Jones, Geoff Marsh and David Boon on the 1989 Ashes tour. The sources disagree, so we say: Cape Town, late 1980s, according to the company.

The business moved to England. Its company, now The Masuri Group Limited, was incorporated in February 1997 as Chase Sport Limited, became Jon Hardy & Co in 2011 and took its present name in 2013; it is registered at an industrial estate in Winchester. Companies House lists a Jonathan Hardy as a director from 1997 to 2015, and a Robin Smith as a director until 2007 — names that match two well-known cricketers, though the register does not say so. Since 2016 the company has stated that no single person or company holds a controlling stake; its current board includes Ian Jamieson, named chairman in 2012. A sister company, Masuri SAI India, was set up in Delhi in 2022.

Masuri’s positioning is blunt: “No player has ever been paid to wear the Masuri helmet, whilst our competitors pay for the privilege,” it says. It names early wearers including Atherton, Gooch, Robin Smith and Lara, and sells replica helmets for England, the West Indies, Sri Lanka and Ireland.

BS 7928: what the standard tests.

Masuri’s product pages carry one sentence over and over: “This cricket helmet is compliant with BS 7928:2013+A1:2019.” That is the British Standard that, since 1 February 2017, the International Cricket Council has enforced for any helmet worn in international cricket. Helmets are not compulsory — the ICC’s rule is that “when a batsman elects to wear a helmet it must be compliant” — but a player who wears a non-compliant one is warned twice and then suspended.

The standard explains why it exists: “With fast bowlers capable of bowling cricket balls at speeds of over 90 mph (140 km/h), head and neck protectors for cricketers are, therefore, a recommended part of a cricket player’s personal protection equipment.” Its 2013 revision added “a projectile test for facial impacts,” firing a men’s ball at 28 metres per second and a junior ball at 23, speeds it calls “theoretically equivalent to realistic cricket ball speeds.” Its current edition covers “head and neck protectors,” with a neck test intended “to reduce the frequency and severity of localized injuries to the base of the rear of the head and upper neck.” And it is honest about limits: “wearing a helmet, faceguard and/or neck protector cannot always prevent death or long-term disability.”

Masuri’s newest helmets go further on fit, with padding 3D-printed from “digital head mapping” under a UK patent. Where they are made, its site does not say; an Indian retailer lists the country of origin of two models as India, and we report that as the retailer’s listing.

Phillip Hughes, and the neck guard.

Masuri’s name appears in one of the most painful documents in modern cricket. Phillip Hughes died on 27 November 2014, two days after being struck on the neck by a ball. The New South Wales coroner’s findings of November 2016 record that he was wearing a Masuri “Test Cricket” helmet, a model made between 2005 and 2013, and state plainly: “There is no suggestion that it in any way malfunctioned or was damaged prior to the incident. However, the area where Phillip Hughes was hit was an area of his neck on the left hand side which was not protected by his helmet.” The coroner added that “even had he been wearing the most modern equipment then available, it would not have protected the area of his body where the fatal blow landed,” and that “Neither the bowler nor anyone else was to blame.”

The findings also record what followed. “Since the incident, Masuri has produced a product called a ‘stem guard’ which clips onto a cricket helmet and provides additional protection to the neck area,” and its managing director said it “was developed as a direct response to the incident.” The StemGuard was unveiled in February 2015. An independent review commissioned by Cricket Australia, by David Curtain QC, was cautious: as reported by the ABC in 2016, it said of the stem guard that “further evaluation is needed to determine if it materially increases player safety,” and of newer helmets that the protection “to the neck, at the rear, is no different.” The coroner did not order neck guards; he recommended that Cricket Australia keep testing devices “with a view to identifying a neck protector that can be mandated.” Cricket Australia has since made neck protectors mandatory for batters facing fast or medium pace in its competitions, from 2023–24.

We set these facts out exactly because they are often blurred. The record shows a helmet that did not fail, a blow to an area no helmet of the time covered, and a manufacturer that responded with a new product.

A brand that sells on a test result.

Masuri’s line is “designed for cricketers by cricketers,” and its most persuasive copy is the certification sentence that ends every product page. Its premium helmets ship in a yellow carry bag. For a design guide, Masuri shows a brand built on a standard: the visible claim is not a slogan but a test number, BS 7928, which a buyer can check.

It also shows a company responding to a tragedy with a product. Masuri’s neck guard, by its managing director’s own account, came from that day in Sydney; the product pages we read describe the protection, not the event.

For this guide we use a navy and a yellow with a clean sans. These are an unofficial interpretation — we did not verify Masuri’s colours — and nothing of its logo is reproduced.

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