The Samajwadi Party and the Congress party are upset that Team India will wear an orange jersey when they play against England on Sunday. The ICC says the colour options were given to the BCCI and they chose what they felt went best with the colour combination. “The whole idea is to be different as England also wears a same shade of blue as India. The design is taken from India’s old T20 jersey which had orange in it,” ICC said.
The Samajawadi Party’s Abu Azmi said the change in colour of the jersey amounted to the saffronisation of the game.
England, the hosts of World Cup 2019, are also sporting a blue jersey and they have the right to retain their kits. Speculation were rife ever about the home-away jersey format at the quadrennial event ever since the ICC came up with a statement, saying it allowed teams to provide two different coloured kits.
“For televised ICC events all participating teams will be required to provide for two different coloured kits, except for the host country who has a preference in the choice of colour and may, if it chooses to do so, provide only one coloured kit to be worn in all matches throughout the event. In advance of the event the teams will be notified which coloured kit will be worn in each match,” the ICC had said in a release.
Notably, South Africa changed the colour of their shirts from green to yellow for their second World Cup 2019 match against Bangladesh who also wear green kits on June 2. Bangladesh had also unveiled an away kit with a dominant red colour.
