SYDNEY: Cricket Australia (CA) announced Wednesday the end of #PickTheKit, its unique fan engagement campaign that allowed passionate supporters of the men’s national team around the world to vote for the ‘retro’ kit that it would like to see its players wear during limited overs matches in the next home season of 2019-20.
In partnership with kit sponsors Alinta Energy and official kit maker Asics, the board was keen to attempt a repeat of its move this summer against India in the ODI series, where Australia’s cricketers were seen wearing the green and gold kit worn by the 1986 team led by Allan Border.
As a result, 450,000 fans participated in four rounds of voting, with eight short-listed retro kits from 1981 to 1999 pitted in head-to-head battles in a bracket system. The poll was run across multiple platforms such as cricket.com.au, the CA Live app and social media platforms Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Eventually, the famous 1999 World Cup jersey was the runaway winner amongst not just fans, but even amongst current playing XI members. It garnered 67% votes, which came upto 80,000 in total.
There’s some key synergies that made a return for the kit such a clear winner, the 20th anniversary of the title won by Steve Waugh’s Australians chief among them. That year’s World Cup was held on English soil, as will this year’s edition in June and July. Australia’s kit for the upcoming tournament is yet to be revealed, but it will not be a revival of a retro outfit.
Final designs for the 2019-20 version of the retro kit will be revealed later this year after a design and consultation process.
