Australia will wear an Indigenous-themed kit at this year’s T20I World Cup, the first time an Australian cricket team has worn a playing strip representing the First Nations at a global event. The hosts will wear an Indigenous-inspired jersey for the first time at a World Cup event when they aim to defend their 2021 T20I crown this year
With black sleeves and a green and gold gradient on the trunk of the playing top, artwork flows around the shirt that will be worn by Aaron Finch‘s squad as they seek to defend the T20 World Cup on home soil later this year.
While England has opted for a predominantly red kit, Aboriginal artwork will flow on the Australian jerseys, which have black sleeves and a green and gold gradient on the trunk of the playing top, as they seek to defend the T20I World Cup on home soil a year after lifting the trophy in the United Arab Emirates defeating trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand.
Australia’s Indigenous Kit for 2022 T20I World Cup Revealed
The long-sleeved version will see the gold and green artwork extended onto the sleeves of the top, while the pants will be black and a cap will feature the colours of both the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags on the brim. The kit was designed by Aunty Fiona Clarke and Courtney Hagen, in collaboration with Asics, with the pair having previously worked together on other Indigenous designs worn by Australia.
As in previous designs, the Walkabout Wickets artwork that has become a prominent motif is again centred on the front of the shirt. Walkabout Wickets was painted by Clarke, a Kirrae Whurrong woman who is the great grand-daughter of James ‘Mosquito’ Couzens, who played in the Aboriginal XI in a landmark match at the MCG in 1866, and also toured England in 1868, the first sporting team from Australia to play abroad.
Clarke created the artwork ahead of the 2016 Boxing Day Test to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the 1866 match, and it has been included on the collar of the Test shirt ever since. It pays tribute to the past, present, and emerging First Nations cricketers, and the connection is an important theme for the kit, which is available for purchase as a replica kit.
“The overall design is to do with the process of connecting with yourself as an individual, as a team, in the community and whatever is surrounded by you … with the river, the land, whatever you see,” Clarke said.
Hagen, a Butchulla and Gubbi Gubbi woman, explained the design incorporated wickets to represent games played, and stars to signify ancestors.
“In the middle we’ve been able to incorporate the colours of the both of First Nations flags in Australia. So you’ve got the red, black and yellow, which is represents Aboriginal flag and the blue, white and green which represents the Torres Strait Islander flag.”
A central motif on the rear of the shirt represents the First XI of the 1868 Aboriginal team that toured England. Despite the pioneering efforts of the 1868 team, who made a perilous journey by ship to the UK and played 47 matches at venues like Lord’s and The Oval, only four Indigenous men and two indigenous women have played international cricket for Australia since the first Test in 1877.
Australia Won Maiden T20I World Cup In 2021 With A 2019 ODI World Cup Kit
The striking new T20I World Cup kit comes after Australia wore two separate strips during their run to the 2021 title in Dubai, the first time an Australian team had been required to produce an ‘alternate’ for a World Cup.
Australia’s men had planned to wear a black, gold, and green kit that mirrored the strip worn by the women’s team that won their T20I World Cup in 2020 when the men’s tournament was originally scheduled to be held in late 2020.
That event was subsequently postponed amid the global COVID-19 pandemic and the Asics kit – with a design inspired by the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the venue for the tournament’s final – was initially mothballed when the tournament was moved to India (and subsequently the UAE) in 2021.
It was resurrected by the men for the 2021 tournament, but the ICC ruled it too closely resembled other kits, and the 2019 ODI World Cup kit was repurposed as the ‘clash’ strip. It ultimately proved to be the kit worn when Australia won the T20I World Cup for the first time, beating New Zealand in the 2021 T20I World Cup final.
Australia has announced a 15-strong squad for the mega tournament. Aaron Finch captains the team with Pat Cummins as his deputy. Singapore-born power-hitter Tim David has been selected for the main squad by Cricket Australia.
Men’s T20I World Cup 2022
Australia squad: Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Tim David, Aaron Finch (c), Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa
First round
Group A: Sri Lanka, Namibia, UAE, Netherlands
Group B: West Indies, Scotland, Ireland, Zimbabwe
Super 12 stage
Group 1: Australia, Afghanistan, England, New Zealand, A1, B2
Group 2: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, South Africa, B1, A2
Australia’s T20 World Cup 2022 fixtures
Oct 22: v New Zealand, SCG, 6pm AEDT
Oct 25: v 1A, Optus Stadium, 10pm AEDT
Oct 28: v England, MCG, 7pm AEDT
Oct 31: v 2B, Gabba, 7pm AEDT
Nov 4: v Afghanistan, Adelaide Oval, 7pm AEDT