Team India has been ordered to wear the same jersey design that won them the World Cup last year for next week's World Twenty20 in a bid to bring them good luck.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is taking no chances in its effort to make the Indian team winning the World Twenty20 title a second time. Their endeavour to ensure the Cup comes to India hasn’t stopped at selecting the best possible squad, they have now ordered the team to drop the new jerseys designed for the tournament and stick to the ones that won them the World Cup last year in a bid to bring them good luck.
“The players have been asked to wear the jersey they wore during the 2011 World Cup,” a BCCI official said.
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THE SHOT THAT WON A CUP: Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (left) hits a six to win against Sri Lanka as teammate Yuvraj Singh reacts during the Cricket World Cup 2011 final at The Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. File Pic/AFP
The move comes less than a month after the new jerseys were unveiled amid much fanfare by Nike. The new Twenty20 design displayed the national colours prominently and even paraded top stars in the new outfit at a media launch.
Interestingly, the cricketers were quite happy with the new jersey design when it was unveiled. “Now that we have a different T20 shirt, there will be a strong association between the format and the jersey,” skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni had said.u00a0
“I play with my heart and I play for the national flag. I like this jersey because the national colours are on my heart,” aggressive opener Virender Sehwag had added.u00a0
But India’s cricket chiefs have asked the players to wear the same blue shirts in which they won the 50-over World Cup in order to bring good luck to the team, a leading newspaper reported on Friday.
Team India players strike a pose in their new jerseys for World T20 at Mumbai recently. Pic/Suresh K.K
“It’s our decision to ask the players to wear the jersey which they had used during the 2011 World Cup,” Indian cricket board official Ratnakar Shetty told the newspaper.
India, the inaugural champions of World T20, could not even reach the semifinals in the 2009 and 2010 editions but given their 50-over World Cup triumph last year, there is considerable hype about them ahead of their year’s WT20.u00a0
The World Twenty20 opens in Sri Lanka on Tuesday.
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