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Chris Gayle has been a pioneer in terms of modern batsmanship for many years now, and on Saturday, he will walk into bat for Melbourne Renegades at the Gabba in a Big Bash League match with something no one has ever walked into bat before with – a golden bat.
Bat manufacturers Spartan have made a gold-coloured bat for Gayle, who will unleash his newest weapon at the Australian T20 competition. Gayle had hinted about this unique weapon of destruction earlier this month:
A first in cricket history, the golden bat will be flown to Brisbane for Saturday’s match.
''There is a light spray of a beautiful gold colour over the bat, it is something that cricket hasn't seen before,'' Spartan boss Kunal Sharma said.
No issue as long as Gayle’s bat complies with Laws of Cricket: CA
There is a gold colouring infused in the timber of the bat and sprayed all over the bat itself. There had been initial plans to use metallic gold in the bat, but those plans were scrapped because the bat makers realised such a bat would never be approved by cricket officials. Dennis Lillee’s historic aluminium bat has already put paid to such innovations.
“There are restrictions on what you can and can't use in cricket bats. And you can't put metals into bat products because they can enhance strokeplay. This bat is fine because we haven't changed the makeup of it,” Sharma said.
Cricket Australia said that as long as Gayle's gold bat was wooden, there should be no problem with its legality.
''Cricket Australia would assume that all players are using equipment that complies with the Laws of Cricket and, if that's case, there should be no issue," CA Head of Cricket Operations Sean Cary said.
The golden bats that Spartan have been exhibiting in the lead-up to the bigger event, of one of their golden bats being used in an actual cricket match:
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