England's Cricket World Cup 2011 Shirt - Revealed!

UPDATE - at end of the post - 25/2/2011


Thanks to an anonymous tip off on my ranting moaning blog about the lack of England World Cup shirt information, I've found some exclusive pictures. Here they are.

And here's the shirt.

Textbook portrait work from Strauss

So there it is. And the obvious thing to note - it's colour. It's black. England's adidas kits started out quite a deep shade of blue, and have been getting progressively darker ever since. But from memory, this is the first time England have had an actual black shirt in ODIs. Which is a surprise.

As you can see on Ian Bell (who's probably taking this modelling thing a bit too seriously), the black shirt is complemented by red arms, and red panels under the arms. There's a tiny bit of white trim in there as well.

Jimmy's pretty gutted that he was asked to wear clothes for this latest modelling shoot

So what do I think about it? Well, after the initial shock that it's black, I don't mind it. I actually think it's quite nice. I'm sure theres all sorts of scientific spiel that is involved in the kit, but since I haven't been given a press release (not like last time), I can't tell you if there's any distinct advantage to this shirt, but on a purely visual level, I quite like it. I'd prefer to see a more colourful (either a nice bright blue, a bright red, or even a light blue shirt), but if I was told that England had to wear black this World Cup, this would probably be the best option available.

So now we just need to hope that it brings England a bit of luck!

25th February UPDATE!

We have some more information. The shirt will be available after the World Cup, and will be worn as England's ODI shirt for 2011 and the winter of 2012. Here it is all logo-ed up (can't wear big sponsors in ICC events...)

Front

and back

And here's the coporate spiel.

Climacool. A mixture of heat and moisture controlling materials, ventilation channels and three dimensional fabrics allow air to flow close to the skin. Key factors are taken into consideration such as the key heat and ventilation zones, the use of moisture management fabrics and conductive fibres that draw heat away from the body. Assists the athlete with temperature regulation regardless of the conditions.

Emboss print to front to add fabric value, Embossed lion to rear, stand up collar for UV protection, zip neck closure, embroidered adidas and ECB logo, Collegiate and light red contrast colour blocking to tie into traditional ECB red and bold training wear red, printed Brit to front centre chest and sleeve.

It doesn't make a great deal of sense, but there you have it. I've bought you as much information as I have. adidas - if you want to send me a shirt for all of my hard work, you know where to find me!