The Beige Brigade is a group of colourful and passionate

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

sport fans who identify themselves by wearing beige colours. A version of this beige uniform was worn by the New Zealand limited overs

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 str ...

team during the early 1980s (in contrast to the more familiar black, which is worn by almost all New Zealand sports teams, including the current cricket team). The Beige Brigade began in 1999 as a group of dedicated New Zealand cricket fans began wearing home sewn beige uniforms to New Zealand matches. These home-made kits echoed the much-maligned official beige team uniform of the 1980s. The uniform become popular as a gesture of solidarity and support for the New Zealand cricket team of the eighties who were very successful. Today, the Beige Brigade sell the uniforms to the general public together with a "moral contract" which explains the expectations that come with being a Beige Brigadier. Such was the impact on the sporting culture of New Zealand, that

NZC New Zealand Cricket, formerly the New Zealand Cricket Council, is the governing body for professional cricket in New Zealand. Cricket is the most popular and highest profile summer sport in New Zealand. New Zealand Cricket operates the New Z ...

agreed to have 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 ...

wear a version of the beige uniform for the inaugural

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 inn ...

international between New Zealand and Australia. This was a far cry from the early days of the Beige Brigade when CEO

Martin Snedden Martin Colin Snedden (born 23 November 1958) is a former New Zealand cricketer, who played 25 cricket tests, and 93 One Day Internationals, between 1980 and 1990. He was a member of New Zealand's seam bowling attack, alongside Richard Hadlee ...

told the Brigade's top brass that "NZ Cricket had invested heavily in the black branding for the Black Caps and that a return to beige was completely out of the question." The decision to wear the beige uniforms did not go down well with the members of the Beige Brigade - certain members felt NZC had unjustly missed them out of the process, despite the work done by supporters designing, funding the manufacture of and popularising the clothing. Since then, New Zealand supporters in beige have been seen at sporting fixtures all over the world including

Rugby Union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

matches, and the Beige Brigade organise tours to selected major sporting events. The only other overseas

supporters club is the England-based London New Zealand Cricket Club, notable for their striped blazers that often appear on the camera at Lord's. Although the Beige Brigade began with the mere donning of the replica beige shirt, what was once a recondite club has now become something akin to a youth movement, reducing all manner of icons of New Zealand pop culture circa 1981. Brigadiers and those who flatter them in imitation are now commonly seen sporting the very short shorts known as " Stubbies" and other items such as sweat bands, fluorescent zinc sunblock, and

aviator sunglasses Aviator sunglasses are a style of sunglasses that were developed by a group of American firms. The original Bausch & Lomb design is now commercially marketed as Ray-Ban Aviators, although other manufacturers also produce aviator-style sunglasses ...

that were once staples of New Zealand summer menswear. During

2016 ICC World T20 The 2016 ICC World Twenty20 was the sixth edition of the ICC World Twenty20, the world championship of Twenty20 International cricket. It was held in India from 8 March to 3 April 2016, and was the first edition to be hosted by India. Seven ...

, the new kits also featured the retro beige colour, which was the colour that was worn when Twenty20 cricket was first introduced.

References

External links

*
Stubbies
{dead link, date=January 2018 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes
Inaugural Twenty20 Match
(BBC)

Cricket culture Sports organisations of New Zealand Sports spectators 1999 establishments in New Zealand

See also

References

External links