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 Ponting, Chappell join baggy green debate
22nd May 2008 18:00 IST
Agencies
Australian cricket is not short of controversy and the latest in the string is about the baggy green cap as players of present and past debate how seriously it should be taken.
Captain Ricky Ponting and former skipper Ian Chappell have stark opposite views on how much respect should be shown to the baggy green after the national team, currently touring the Caribbean, wore blue sponsor's caps in a warm-up match against Jamaica XI and Cricket Australia Chief Executive James Sutherland had to apologised for the 'mistake'.
While Ponting described it as a "precious" and "cherished and valued thing", Chappell, who retired in 1980, felt the baggy green was being overly glorified since the days of Steve Waugh and termed it as just a "dollar five piece of cloth".
Ponting in his latest column for 'The Australian' explained that under the changed policy of the CA, a cricketer does not own a baggy green until it is presented to him by another player on the morning of his Test debut.
"There has been an evolution in what the baggy green means to the Australian team and I would argue that there has never been a time when it was more respected.
"There was a time when the baggy green cap was handed out at will... When former players started selling them at auctions things had to change. The player group was not happy with it, it was undermining their symbolic value, so Cricket Australia changed the policy.
"I think some of the former players who criticised us thought we were still operating under the old system. Today it is a Test cap and it is a cherished and valued thing," he said. |
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