The South Africans wear whites with green piping, and green collar details. Others teams have begun to follow suit. Already the inside linings of trouser pockets flash deep green or dark blue. I can see this trend evolve into piped whites with discreet, barely visible stripes which would look very nice – on a baseball diamond. But on a cricket pitch, for a Test match, can we have whites please?

The worst offender against white is the Indian team and here the problem isn’t design details but the awfulness of its sponsor’s logo. Sahara might be a sterling company but its logo was made by a graphic designer from hell. It consists of the company’s name spelt out in letters so large they were clearly designed to do duty on a billboard, with a tri-colour wing attached to the last ‘A’ just so we know that the company’s heart beats for India. It makes sense for the Sahara Group to want its name to be visible from a mile away, but shouldn’t the BCCI be trying to protect the ‘look and feel’ of the game that it’s meant to promote? Shouldn’t there be a maxiumum size specified for corporate logos? Doesn’t the BCCI care that with SAHARA meandering across their chests and sleeves, India’s Test cricketers look like bandwallahs on holiday? And things promise to get worse. In the Super League match being played currently between Bengal and Mumbai, the players wear logos not just on both breasts but on both thighs too. And on their sleeves!

I recognize the importance of corporate sponsorship in contemporary sport, but every game has to make a choice about advertising: It can take the Formula 1 route where the contestant is a walking billboard or it can choose Wimbledon’s way, where players’ bodies are meant to represent tennis and where logos are subordinated to a particular, pastoral vision of the game. Given the nature of Test cricket, the choice isn’t a hard one. Someone tell the BCCI.

Mukul,
I would go far and say "let us keep only the Test in Cricket" and do away with the other version and also the other-other version - 20/20. I am a traditionalist, you see. Now for the brickbats!!

A trivial matter written in a complicated way. The above comment is more suited to creative writing, and I suggest to the writer to dwell more on cricketing analysis rather than presenting philosophical and artistic beauty in the "nature" of cricket.

All i have to say is i would love to see atleast a atripe of white, in the next 5 years,say from 2012. It would be a blessing if we were to have the serenity and sanctity of cricket which is supposed to be a part of the so-called "Gentleman's game".

I am just against the idea of having sponsors get the space on the front of the shirt. Team Sahara vs Team Pepsi? The logo on whites is horrendous, and must be removed. I totally agree that test cricket must remain in the same whites that it has always had and the ICC must regulate this with authority.

I couldn't agree more with Mukul. The very same point has both struck and irritated me while watching test cricket: this "slimy" way of sneaking in colours via tha piping etc is both silly and unpleasing to the eye.The traditional uniform was much better and I don't understand the reasoning behind this unaesthetic behaviour.Also valid is his point on the sponsors' logo it makes for unpleasant and unaesthetic viewing. But then when you have bean counters running the show and not just in India, probably this is what happens.Still I agree totally, we need to draw a line preferably as far back as the early 80's in matters of uniform colours for the purest form of the game- Test Cricket!

Cheers and congrats for a timely observation.

Nirbhay Singh

aesthetics are dependent on the person. for some chandni chowk might be the hight of aesthetics, for others it might be wimbeldon..can't help it.human nature

i agree the sanctity of test cricket shld be maintained and logo's shld limited however a bit of green or blue piping will not be amiss. the real issue is that one day and twenty that has spolied the beauty of test cricket to an extent. especially 20-20. let us face it 20-20 is just batting practice and a carnival. there is nothing cricket about it other than the fact that it is played with a bat and ball with three stumps at each end. the icc is more intrested in money and for that they are ready to devise any new games and call it some sort of cricket or the other.

I agree. Test matches and ODIs as well should be played in white like before. Twenty20s are a complete waste of time. Ten Test matches and 20-25 ODIs a year is enough so it doesn't get dull. Play with a red ball and white uniform.

Sir, I think you are a hopeless romantic, carrying on ad nauseam about something that has no bearing on the game itself. White, green, purple or magentta. Who gives a horses behind! What we should be concentrating on instead is the game and its longevity with changing times. As long as they don;t introduce a pointy hat with a red nose, I think I am ok. AMF!

Mukul, you just wait... it'll soon be down to how many pieces of "flair" players must wear, TGI Friday's style. Players will be singing happy birthday en masse to ladies in the spectators as they sit there and blush, and as the drinks trolley brings in the cake. The fielding captain will use the stump-microphone to make the announcement while the rest of the players show-off their cart-wheels and somersaults. Of course there'll be fireworks, and balloons, and there'll be music, loud music, in the background. No sweet lullabies here, only hip-hop. Noise, people, noise... LET THERE BE CHANGE (echo), CHANGE, CHANGE, CHAnge, change, chan... (fade).

But wait. Who's to blame for all this? I would venture to hurl an accusation at the same elitists who are lamenting this change. Who is getting rich in the process? It has been the way of the aristocratic, and now the aristocartic-wannabe, to have a disdain for the ordinary while profiting from the same. Who has and who is allowing all of this to happen? Where do our brown-sahabs, the Dalmiyas and the Ehsan Manis, get their Burberrys and their Havana cigars from?

And then there are people who tend to equate corporate sponsorship with the great economic boom India is witnessing today. The herd that the Indian middle-class is couldn't care less about what logos the players wear on their foreheads as long as they are shown some way of worshipping those logos. Give me my Armani, Christian Dior, and Channel. Give me Tommy Hilfiger, give me Levi's. Hell... give me a freakin' sample of soap and deodorant but give me a brand name.

Mukul, you made a statement, without adequately supporting it. What exactly is the problem with color creeping into Test cricket?

"short-term temptations of color" -- what exactly does this mean? Really, I just don't get it. Do you mean that adoption of color has been proven to be temporary or that the urge towards color is a limited-time force that can be withstood? Can you explain?

I am yet to understand why Wimbledon is better, becuase of its whites, than say the US Open, in its colors. Maybe Wimbledon's historical status (and sticking to the dying breed of grass courts) is what makes it charming and well-followed?

Finally, of the whole host of issues you could have highlighted about BCCI's negligence of the sport, you picked logo-size enforcement?!!!

I find it much more disgusting to see the TV-Channel's logo and animated-ads OBSTRUCTING our view while watching the game. And now, one of the few organisations that could have forced the removal of TV logos and replay-ads when broadcasting cricket, has in fact added their own logo on the screen, obstructing our view further!

Cricket needs to take lessons from soccer, one of which is the quality of production and broadcasting. FIFA and the FA own the copyright to the footage and frequently bring out DVDs without any TV logo in the corner and definetly no obstrictive, animated ads.

Another lesson is that the ICC needs to suspend teams from international competition, just like FIFA banned Greece for political interference until the Greek government stopped interfering.

from -20C in toronto so toss me if you like.
mukul, being a wimbledon and lords buff..i agree 100%. test cricket all, or predomiantly, white. prem

Very true. only cricket is TEST cricket, and it should remain as is.
how great it feels to watch a brilliant fast bowler bowl to an equally brilliant batsman in whites, with a red cherry in hand, green grass below them and blue skies above. that is the beauty. lesser the color, better is the impact. unlike 50-50 or 20-20, which are hopeless to say the least. esp. the 1999 WCup shirts!!! Pakistan flouroscent green!, India - shining pale blue!, Zimbabwe - blazing red! and so on.... it was bad for the eyes as well!

What is the point of Mukul Kesavan blog? Or, perhaps it is just me who missed the point. Rigour is very important for all writings...

Haven't cricket jumpers traditionally had a stripe of the team colour bordering the V neck with a similar streak around the waist? Besides, hasn't the Baggy Green has long been an object of Aussie reverence? So sleep needn't be lost over the tiny dose of colour which has been 'recently' applied to Test uniforms. I'm sure Test cricketing attire will remain more Wimbledon than Flushing Meadows. I also retain the (foolhardy?) hope that international cricketers won't be turned into walking billboards as much as the Super League players mentioned. The brazen Sahara logo remains a definite eyesore.

What a terribly confused chap Mukul Kesavan is? Can't we find an Indian counterpart of Kamran Abbasi?

I swear I can do a much better blog than Kesavan for Men in White with more depth, information, passion, and infinitely less superficiality. Give me chance Cricinfo !!

I agree with you Mukul. I was a bit horrified to see the green lines in the South African player dresses in tests. I love my test cricket pure white as well. In Wimbledon, the white norm is very strictly followed and players are even asked to wear white underwears where the same would be visible during shots. White brings a bit of pureness and richness to the cricket and Wimbledon which adds so much to the game as well.

The Aussie 'Orange' logos they fielded in tests were as bad if not worse than the Sahara logos. The size of the logos has to be reduced in my opinion.

Mukul, the Indian Test kit from the 90s was even worse. "Wills" or Four Square written in big red lettering was a sobre reminder to all fans that the company sponsoring our team specialized in making the same things that can cause lung cancer. I don't think there's anything wrong with having logos on whites, even first-class cricket has them these days. But I agree that we must do away with the lining and all that. This is Test cricket, not a bunch of scuba divers or sea world employees playing in a backyard.

Test Cricket is lovely because it has history and everyone, players, spectators, umpires become part of that fabric that connects the last 140 years. The reason people watch Wimbledon is that it is unique, and let's be honest Grass Court Tennis is more exciting than anything else. How many people who watch the final really know what the size of the grass is or that a doubles match between two sets of middle-aged ladies always takes place before the Men's final or that (add more traditional facts here...) The simple reason is that grass court tennis is way more exciting than anything else out there. So, if you want to keep test cricket alive make it exciting, all this hogwash about whites and what not is really unimportant.

Test cricket moulds a cricketer. This includes the batting,feilding, captaincy, wicketkeeping and bowling. Test cricket remains relevant for the growth of the cricketer.A 20-20 game will only make a bit and peices cricketer and its not a good cricketing diet for the player and the spectator.
Long live Test cricket!

Another thing, India needs to get back to proper cricket caps, not baseball caps, in tests. Every other team plays wearing cricket caps, the baggy green coming immediately to mind. Only Rahul Dravid seems to wear the proper Indian test cap, while everyone else walks around with baseball caps with a nike logo on it.

I must admit that the changing game has taking on a new and different feel. The whites for test cricket is totally correct. However, with the advent of television and all other forms of communication, the difficulties of obtaining sponsors has forced the authorities of cricket to totally hand over the reins to the sponsors.
Then,too, we as fans have become accustomed to the quick results. No one wants to sit through a test anymore and so fewer and fewer are scheduled in tours. ODIs are the money makers, the authorities see that and the sponsors know that. So the idea is that they will only put money where they know that the visibility and return for their dollar is good.

Fact is, we live in a changing world, and one can't hold onto traditions forever simply for their own sake and cricket is no exception. Put simply, if you continue to look at the past, you will be forever stuck in it. I disagree strongly with "sreekumar", 20 over cricket represents the future of the game in a world where sports are having to become more exiting in order to compete on a GLOBAL level. In my opinion 20 over cricket is at least 5-6 years overdue.

Test cricket is a mother of cricket. You can't change your mother. Any game has it's own spirit, an essence that makes that particular game unique. I do agree with mukul about follow the white color and sneaking into the colors. Tradition is a proud to follow. And some people may not understand this pride. This tradition of game is like having a food , that is traditionaly cooked. It has it's own taste. If you change the method of cooking, food may not taste the same. MAHI may Not understand it and that is why he is not understanding the point MUKUL is making here.

Luckily I have stopped watching cricket. I prefer playing the wonderful game. It certainly better than watching and following with all the commercialism and scandels. The sound when you middle leather on the ones willow certainly beats sitting and watching..

I really don't see the big deal about adding just a little colour to the uniform. In fact, when I first saw the green added to the South Africans' uniform, I liked it.

But the thing about the advertisements on the Indians' uniform, to me, is a bit excessive, its just too much.

-Peace!

Mukul, my friend, if the Late Kerry Packer thought on the same lines as you, the world would have never seen color clothing, day night games, white balls and state of the art television coverage of the game. Cricket has gained immense popularity from the advent of all these innovations and its all the more important that it continues to do so. You would agree that no one wants to see cricket played between 10 nations forever. It has to go further and farther and spread the world round. Test cricket, no doubt, is the purest form of the game but what good will it be if it has no audience? Only ten teams play on n on and the results become as one-sided and predictable as Australia has made them over the last decade? Change HAS to be the only constant. 20/20 and oneday cricket provide that excitement and an element of unpredictability and continue to popularize the game and attract more fans and players towards the game. Eventually these very people will become your test match audience. It certainly doesnt work the other way around.
So colored clothing, or no colored clothing, branding, no-branding....wen its all good for the game in the long run, what the heck!

Having logos plastered all over players' uniforms (a la Formula 1) don't have the effect sponsors wish for - can you name one sponsor from the most recent race? The message gets lost when there are too many vying for attention. Now, thats a good business reason for the sponsors to refrain from this madness. It has the nice side effect of being aesthetically pleasing as well.

Mukul Kesavan is right in a way that, even though the colour creepage is not overdone yet, it may safely be extrapolated that this will be so in a couple of years. Also, on the other hand, commercial considerations, so important for any organized sport, demand that logos have to be part of the cricketeers' uniform. So, what is needed is a judicious optimization of the amount of uniform-space alloted for logos and colours.