2. Sports

Bangladesh first to unveil away kit, India thinking about the same

Sports Desk
Sports Desk Published: 26 May 2019, 02:14 PM | Updated: 26 May 2019, 02:18 PM
Bangladesh first to unveil away kit, India thinking about the same
Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza sporting Bangladesh’s home and away jersey for World Cup 2019(ESPN Cricinfo (Twitter))

Bangladesh on Saturday became the first side to unveil their away jersey for ICC World Cup 2019. Bangladesh’s away kit, which is dominated by red, is in complete contrast with their regular World Cup kit, which only had splashes of red and was mainly green.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board took the decision after ICC for the first time advised the teams to prepare a separate away kit to avoid confusion during the World Cup in England.

‘For televised ICC events all participating teams will be required to provide for two different coloured kits, except for the host country who has preference in the choice of colour and may, if it chooses to do so, provide only one coloured kit to be worn in all matches throughout the event. In advance of the event the teams will be notified which coloured kit will be worn in each match,” ICC said in a release.

Bangladesh, Pakistan and South Africa are the teams who have green as their prominent colour and while facing each other in the group stages, the ‘away’ team will take the field in a different coloured kit.

Interestingly, there was a controversy surrounding Bangladesh’s World Cup kit even before the ICC issued its guidelines. The Bangladesh supporters expressed their intense disappointment with a kit that had no red shade but only green, resembling the jersey of Pakistan. Eventually, BCB was forced to come up with a fresh kit with both green and red colour in it.

According to media reports, India too are thinking of preparing an away kit, with orange as the prominent colour. India might need their away kit for matches against England, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan as they too have blue in their home kit.

England (hosts), Australia and New Zealand are the only sides who don’t require an away kit because of the unique colour of their jerseys.

The ICC World Cup 2019 kickstarts with hosts England taking on South Africa in the opening match on May 30 at The Oval.