By IANS,
Melbourne : Former Test skipper Ian Chappell has joined the baggy green debate saying the cap has been more glorified under Steve Waugh’s captaincy.
Chappell said reverence for the baggy green, inspired by former captain Waugh, bordered on overkill.
“There is too much made of the baggy green. It is a cap, a nice cap, but has only become more than a cap since Steve Waugh started to jump up and down about it,” Chappell was quoted as saying in the Herald Sun.
“Cricket memorabilia has also played its part, going for ridiculous prices. It is a $5 bit of cloth. I have not got one, have not had one since the day I finished. I don’t need to look at an Australian cap to remind me of what I did.”
The controversy over the baggy green cap was fuelled after the Australian team preferred a blue cap with sponsors logo in a tour game in West Indies.
Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland has apologised for permitting the Australian side to wear caps with the VB logo on the first day of the tour match against a Jamaican XI.
“All touring players used to wear it whether they played a Test or not. It has been overdone. I guess there is some credit to Brad Haddin that he didn’t want to wear one before he played a Test match, but he could have put a white cricket hat on.”
Haddin had not played a Test so all players donned blue VB caps to preserve the “integrity” of the baggy green.