During the ICC World Cup 2019 in England and Wales that the veteran Indian wicket-keeper, MS Dhoni had come under the scanner for wearing gloves bearing army symbol. Former Indian skipper eventually removed it after facing some severe criticism. And now, another wicketkeeper has faced a similar experience and it is England’s Sam Billings.
Billings is also England’s who is also the Three Lions’ vice-captain in the ongoing T20I series against New Zealand, has been stopped from wearing his new eco-friendly batting gloves on grounds that they violate an arcane color-related kit regulation, as per the reports of Daily Mail. ICC match referee Andy Pycroft told Billings ahead of the first T20I in Christchurch on Friday that the Gray-Nicholls gloves – known as “Offcuts” because of their manufacturing from recycled cricket equipment were illegal.\
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According to the rules, the problem lied in the fact that more than 50 percent of any batting glove worn in limited-over games ‘must be white or the same color as the base color of the relevant team’s playing shirt’. In the case of Billings, the fingers of his new gloves featured lime green, maroon, sky and dark blues while England’s T20 shirt is mainly red.
Billings was seen wearing the controversial gloves during the two warm-up games against New Zealand Cricket XI in Lincoln recently and is set to do the same in the T10 competition in the UAE starting later in November. The T10 competition doesn’t come under teh jurisdiction of ICC.
When the gloves were launched a week ago, Billings had said these praising words, “It’s a great initiative. I think the world generally now is trying to get far cleaner and recycle far more. I love the fancy colors, and the great thing about it is the quality is the same as any other product – and it looks incredible.”
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However, the ICC rules have stopped him from wearing the same gloves during the first T20I against the Kiwis on Friday that the visitors lost by seven scalps to go 1-0 up the five-game series. He had to instead settle for a pair of white gloves. The second T20I will be played in Wellington on November 3.
