Cricket cap

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A cricket cap is a type of soft cap, often made from felt that is a traditional form of headwear for players of the game of cricket, regardless of age or gender. It is usually a tight-fitting skullcap, normally made of six sections, with a small crescent shaped brim that points downwards over the brow to provide shade for the eyes. They are often, but not always elasticised at the rear to hold them in place upon the wearers head. Sometimes, rather than tight-fitting, the cricket cap comes in a baggy variety, that is always kept in place by elastic.

The style of cap is also often used as official headwear as part of school uniforms for boys from private schools, particularly in the United Kingdom and throughout the Commonwealth of Nations. Although not common in the modern period, the cricket cap used to be a fashionable form of headwear for people who were casually dressed, and not necessarily worn just for playing the game.

Cricket caps are usually, but not always multi-coloured in the colours of the cricket club or school for which the cap is designed to represent. Sometimes they are particularly elaborately patterned with different sections in different colours, or different coloured rings or hoops around them. At international level, the cap is traditionally made from a single colour. However in recent years in particular, many cricket teams, particularly for limited overs cricket have opted to wear a baseball cap, rather than traditional cricket caps, but the style is still quite popular for first-class cricket teams, as well as test cricket sides.

The origins of the cricket cap are hard to discern, however prints showing the game being played in the eighteenth century, already depict players wearing a variety similar versions of the traditional cricket cap.

Perhaps the most famous version of the cricket cap in the modern setting is the baggy green cricket cap of the Australian cricket team, for which the players and fans of Australia hold a degree of reverence. The cap is treated with a degree of mysticism, and players who have long careers often refuse to replace the original one they receive as they often feel the cap is a lucky talisman. This sometimes results in players who have long careers wearing their cricket caps in quite a tattered state. The Australian side famously always wear their baggy cricket cap, rather than alternatives such as a sun hat for the first session of each match as a symbol of team solidarity.

Players who represent first-class or test match cricket sides are often presented with a cap ceremonially before their debut. This is called "receiving their first cap". The cap is numbered according to how many players have represented that side before them. For example, famous Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar was the 187th player to represent India at test level, and therefore has cap number 187. It is also sometimes used to refer to the number of time a player has played. Tendulkar has played 142 tests for India, therefore he has received 142 caps. (As of December 2007).