Australia and India cricket players are seen sporting brand new white jerseys in the ongoing first Day-Night Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and the big sponsor logo on the shirts of both teams has caught the attention of many at Adelaide Oval.
This is for the first time both India and Australia have displayed the bigger sponsor logos across the front of the player’s shirts in the traditional format of cricket – Tests after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the change in heavily-regulated clothing and equipment policy.
While the Indian cricket team donned the new whites with new principle sponsors Byju’s and kit sponsors MPL on it across the front, the Australian team was also seen wearing the new shirt featuring a large sponsor logo across the front – both teams did it for the first time in the history of Test cricket.
The new-look shirts are in accordance with the rule introduced by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Apart from making a handful of interim changes, including the return of non-neutral umpires and banning the use of saliva to polish the ball, in order to resume cricket during the pandemic, the governing body also decided to change the Test whites to help the cricket boards to recover some losses by allowing them to sell the space on their shirt front.
Earlier, the teams were only allowed to sport only smaller logos – no bigger than 64.5cm2 (10in2) – on the breast and the sleeve in Test cricket, but now the ICC allowed them to put sponsors on the front of the shirt to earn more revenue after facing huge loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Initially, the ICC allowed the additional sponsorship branding only till the end of the 2020-21 season but the governing body later decided to permanently implement the change – the second major change to Test shirts in the past 18 months after the addition of player names and numbers on the whites.
Meanwhile, Australia A was the first team to sport the new shirts during the tour game, and on Thursday, December 17, senior players wore the new jersey against India.
Noteworthy, three of the new-look shirts, which were signed by the entire Australian Test squad, will be reportedly auctioned to raise funds for Cricket Australia's charity partners.
(With India Today Inputs)
