I assume that the primary goal is to sell shirts, with a secondary goal of making the game more "accessible" to the very casual fan.
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Originally posted by ursus arctos View PostOn styles, given that England are outfitted by New Balance and Australia by Asics, I would find it strange if the style was identical. I don't think it should be a matter for ICC diktat.
I like the idea of players explaining their choice of number, though I am also inclined to think that numbers should be the same across all formats.
Agree on players carrying numbers over all formats, it would be really silly otherwise.
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They should be 1 to 11 really. Though I expect someone like Ashley Giles is deluded enough to imagine Ben Stokes being number 38 or whatever is a marketing point. They might as well go all out for taking the piss like Afridi did when playing for Hampshire as 00.
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This is international competition, not a league.
If you are going to suggest that FIFA should mandate name and number designs for the World Cup (or UEFA for the Euros, etc), we will at least have a new candidate for your most ill-conceived kit-related opinion (knocking your rubbishing of the Man City kit off its perch).
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Originally posted by Anorak Smith View PostTechnical question, how would you iron a number onto a jumper or are we seriously suggesting having numbers knitted into jumpers? Have them on the thigh of their trousers, save someone the bother.
Are red ball cricket jumpers still wool/cotton, I wonder?
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Originally posted by ursus arctos View PostThis is international competition, not a league.
If you are going to suggest that FIFA should mandate name and number designs for the World Cup (or UEFA for the Euros, etc), we will at least have a new candidate for your most ill-conceived kit-related opinion (knocking your rubbishing of the Man City kit off its perch).
I think the problem stems from the fact that, unlike other international sports, the differences in test cricket kit are otherwise quite minimal. The very different fonts on those kits jar a little more than they do in a football or rugby World Cup, for instance.
Last edited by Ray de Galles; 06-08-2019, 13:49.
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Originally posted by ursus arctos View PostI assume that the primary goal is to sell shirts, with a secondary goal of making the game more "accessible" to the very casual fan.Originally posted by Lucy Waterman View PostThey should be 1 to 11 really. Though I expect someone like Ashley Giles is deluded enough to imagine Ben Stokes being number 38 or whatever is a marketing point. They might as well go all out for taking the piss like Afridi did when playing for Hampshire as 00.
Are IPL shirt sales high, do we know? Do people take up the names and numbers as well? I would presume the high churn of players would mitigate against it.
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I've seen IPL shirts in New York, so they do sell some.
From a marketer's point of view, the question isn't so much the overall number of shirts sold as the marginal increase. I can rather easily see manufacturers taking a punt on that, and throwing a few extra bucks at countries/counties/clubs for the privilege.
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I can't be sure, but it seems like cricket isn't pushing merch as much as sports that I'm used to. For example, Australia does not sell replica baggy greens to the public. Fair enough, they want it to be special because earning a cap for Australia is a rare achievement. But most sports wouldn't let that stand in the way of a quick buck.*
The persistence of those white sweaters (you call them jumpers) and shirts with collars is remarkable. Everyone looks like Don Budge or a dandy at Princeton in 1922, but with modern running shoes on. I understand that that tradition is very important. Tradition is important to a lot of sports, but I can't think of another major sport that is holding onto uniform tradition quite so tightly. Baseball and hockey do, but most of their uniform decisions now are about selling replicas. Wimbledon still insists on white too, of course, but the shirts don't have to have a collar. And when was the last time a man played in Wimbledon in full trousers?
So If you're going to stick so tightly with tradition, then mucking it up with sponsors and what not doesn't make much sense, aesthetically, at least. It makes sense commercially, I'm sure, but it just looks weird. Jarring, as somebody above said. (Can't be bothered to check).
The numbers make it easier to identify which player is which for those too far away to read the name, but it might be hard to stitch a number onto one of those sweaters with that ropey-wavy pattern they have on them (I'm not a knitter, so I don't know what that pattern business is called).
I also have a hard time believing its cold enough for a sweater or a sweater vest right now. Maybe it's cooled off a lot.
*I have a Sussex CC floppy hat that doesn't fit me, so I'm hoping to get one that does. A floppy hat would come in handy sometimes.
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I think that's one benefit of having multiple forms of the game. You can create all kinds of merchy easy replica kit for T20 and 50 over forms of the game, and still pretend to be proud upholders of tradition by having people wear trad whites in the long form.
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I think Australia are better at Tests than ODIs, due to Smith being clearly the best around in Tests but not necessarily ODIs and due to Lyon's impact in Tests. The rankings will soon reflect this, I think.
West Indies are potentially coming back in Tests but useless in ODIs.
But the difference with England is that winning the World Cup was clearly prioritized over the Test side and I can't recall any other team doing that to the same extent, maybe ever. The Test team was assumed to be OK because Anderson kept winning home series for them, but there was no succession plan for the end of the Anderson-Broad era so England now have to gamble on rookie quicks in the middle of an Ashes series.
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Had an email from Yorkshire CCC today about sales of tickets for next summer and it seems Australia are visiting yet again, which was news to me and indeed I can't seem to find anything online about it. West Indies and Pakistan are the Test tourists, Headingley are advertising a T20 against Australia so I assume they're going to have another of those white ball series while a major football tournament is on. Suppose it could also be an ECB attempt to bolster the playing ranks for the Hundred "you're over here for internationals anyway, why not play for a franchise?"
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