Cricket whites, also known as flannels, the kit, costume or uniform worn by most

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

ers, and usually consists of trousers, shirt and a jumper. Originally, as indicated by the name whites, flannels were exclusively white or cream. Today, many competitions (particularly in the shortened one-day version of cricket) are played in coloured kit, also sometimes known as pyjamas. Flannels were originally made from a variety of

flannel Flannel is a soft woven fabric, of various fineness. Flannel was originally made from carded wool or worsted yarn, but is now often made from either wool, cotton, or synthetic fiber. Flannel is commonly used to make tartan clothing, blankets, b ...

materials. Typically, modern flannels will have trousers made with a high elastic content, to prevent damage while fielding. Shirts and jumpers can be short or long-sleeved, the former being particularly favoured by bowlers. Wicketkeepers mostly wear long-sleeved shirts, in order to avoid abrasions from the grass when diving for the ball, which is also true for some players while batting due to a similar risk. Jumpers are traditionally made with a

cable-knit Cable knitting is a style of knitting in which textures of crossing layers are achieved by permuting stitches. For example, given four stitches appearing on the needle in the order ', one might cross the first two (in front of or behind) the ne ...

design. The term flannels is also used in

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

, especially in a historical context when the uniforms were made of wool flannel. At the international level, whites are only worn during

Test cricket Test cricket is a form of first-class cricket played at international level between teams representing full member countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC). A match consists of four innings (two per team) and is scheduled to last fo ...

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

and

Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single innin ...

matches are played with the teams wearing team uniforms in particular colours. One-Day Internationals were first played in whites but since December 2000 all ODI cricket has been played in coloured clothing – for example, the

Black Caps The New Zealand national cricket team represents New Zealand in men's international cricket. Named the Black Caps, they played their first Test in 1930 against England in Christchurch, becoming the fifth country to play Test cricket. From 1930 ...

of New Zealand currently wear a black uniform when playing a one-day match.

References

{{Cricket equipment

Whites White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view. Description of populations as " ...

Sports uniforms

See also

References