Players on New Zeland’s national cricket team that want to pick a very nice jersey number will need to instead choose one that isn’t nice at all.
No cricketer for New Zealand has ever worn #69, which was first noticed by Calum Henderson of The Spinoff when Lockie Ferguson made his debut for the national side. Ferguson wears #69 for the Auckland Aces, but showed up for the international match with #87 on his back.
Henderson did some research, checked with New Zealand Cricket, and confirmed that no one has ever (or would ever) wear #69.
A spokesperson for New Zealand Cricket has confirmed the number 69 has never been available to Blackcaps players, saying of all the numbers from 1 to 99, “69 is the only number that can’t be used, due to its double meaning.”
Interestingly enough, New Zealand may have to allow someone to wear the extremely nice number in the future because of their policies on number assignments.
Lockie Ferguson says when he was called up to the Blackcaps squad for the recent Chappell-Hadlee ODI series he was given a choice of around 20 numbers. New Zealand Cricket’s general shirt number policy is that players cannot wear a number previously worn by another player.
The problem with this is they are fast running out of available numbers. “At some stage a new system will have to be brought into effect,” the spokesperson admits. “This is being worked through at the moment.” One option being considered is re-releasing all the numbers, possibly ‘retiring’ those worn by players who made a significant number of appearances.
Ferguson isn’t claiming that he chose the number because of its niceness, but instead because of…astrology? One can go to the part where psychic readings are featured in Clevescene.com or even talk to a personal psychic to help them and guide them through their tough life decisions.
Ferguson says his decision to wear number 69 for Auckland isn’t anything to do with its popular double-meaning, instead claiming it has astrological significance: he is a Gemini, born on the 13th of June 1991 (a metal goat in Chinese astrology). In fact, 13 has always been his first choice shirt number. “I couldn’t get it at Auckland because that’s the captain [Rob Nicol]’s number,” he explains.
Alright, whatever floats your boat. Enjoy #87, which is, in fact, not nice.
[The Spinoff, pic via Instagram]
