Twenty years since the first T20 international cricket match
Photo:
Photosport
This summer marks 20 years since the first international T20 cricket match, which featured the Black Caps and Australia at Eden Park.
At the time, T20 cricket was viewed as "a bit of a joke" and the first international saw afros, moustaches and the Black Caps and Australia wearing retro jerseys, with the Black Caps kitted out in beige.
The two teams are facing off once again this October at the Bay Oval in Tauranga, and New Zealand cricket are selling tickets for $20 to mark the milestone.
Beige Brigade co-founder Paul Ford remembers the match 20 years ago and is hoping to get the Bay Oval crowd to wear beige in October.
The beige jersey has become a de facto colour for Black Caps fans and Ford told
Morning Report
how the retro 1980s jersey came back into vogue for that first T20 match.
Chris Cairns celebrates a wicket during the T20 match between the Black Caps and Australia at Eden Park on 17 February 2005.
Photo:
Hannah Johnston / Photosport
"It was a pretty unusual situation. New Zealand Cricket had invested a lot of money in their Black Caps brand and then decided to go back to beige.
"Unbelievable that the 1980s kit that got formed up as a joke and we [the Beige Brigade] took on as a sort of a satirical piece of clothing is still going."
The Beige Brigade was formed "last century" as a tongue in cheek supporters' group at a time when New Zealand wasn't particularly good at cricket.
Ford explains that it was his friend and Black Cap bowler Dan Vettori who got hold of an old Bruce Edgar one-day kit from the 1980s, and Ford would wear it to games in the late 90s, and the Beige Brigade was formed from there.
"People loved 1980s cricket. They loved how good New Zealand was at that time."
For those who remember that match in 2005, Ford offers some frightening statistics.
"Rachin Ravindra was five, and the whole New Zealand team was under 15-years-old."
Scott Styris hits a six during the T20 match between the Black Caps and Australia at Eden Park in 2005.
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Photo:
Photosport
Along with the new crop of players, and the Black Caps success over the past decade on the world stage, there have been a lot of changes to how T20 cricket is viewed.
"That first game was very much tongue in cheek, it was a bit of a joke, the players didn't take it seriously, no one really thought it was going to take on the massive significance that it has.
"It's gone from being a novelty to being something that's massively attractive to fans."
The Black Caps and Australia play three T20 matches at the Bay Oval starting on 1 October.
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