Australian Test team smashed over ‘ridiculous’ look in First Test

Fans were all left saying the same thing after the Aussie team walked out for the opening day of the First Test of the summer.

Australia’s new official Test cricket shirts have not gone down well with fans on the opening day of the First Test against Pakistan.

Cricket Australia unveiled the new kits for the 2023-24 summer of cricket earlier this month with fans not liking what they saw.

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Just like the traditional all-whites of Wimbledon have slowly been watered down, the once-pristine cricket whites of Test cricket are also a thing of the past.

That has reached a whole new level due to the sponsorship-laden uniforms to be worn by the men’s and women’s national teams this summer.

David Warner, Travis Head, Steve Smith and Pat Cummins. Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images.

Toyota has upgraded its sponsorship deal to become the major sponsor for the men’s teams, sitting alongside other CA sponsors that include Asics, HCLTech and Commonwealth Bank.

The motoring goliath was plastered all over the shirts of Pat Cummins and his teammates on the opening day in Perth — and it’s still taking fans some time to get used the change.

Toyota on Australia Test Jersey looks aweful.

— mon (@4sacinom) December 13, 2023

How ugly is the Australian Test cricket kit with the massive toyota logo on the front, ruined it

— Carter (@cwsbbb) December 14, 2023

The Toyota logo on Aussie Jersey 🤮

— Saurabh Desai (@sau_desai) December 14, 2023

It comes after a reported 12-month search for a new major sponsor following the end of the controversial five-year deal with Alinta Energy in June.

That partnership ended in the wake of comments from Test skipper Pat Cummins who declared CA should make the climate a “priority” when considering “who we want to invite into being part of cricket”.

Both Alinta and Cummins denied the comments had anything to do with the deal ending, and confirmed the decision had already been made, but the Test captain was cast as a “woke” villain by some critics.

The new national team uniforms released by Cricket Australia.

The logos for Australia were a little more restrained in this year’s Ashes series in the UK. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

Toyota and information technology company HCLTech have since “upgraded their partnerships with Cricket Australia to include displaying their global brands on the iconic Australian playing shirts”, a CA press release read recently.

Yet the “iconic Australian shirts” are becoming more and more a billboard and didn’t sit well with a number of fans on social media.

It seems the thick, black outline of the Toyota logo is particularly jarring to some.

“Maybe the logo could have been more of a Yaris, rather than a Landcruiser size”, was one comment.

“Can we get uniforms with bigger sponsorship logos please? Maybe the players could get big Toyota insignia tattooed on their faces?” quipped another.

Journalist Neroli Meadows also weighed into the discussion.

“Just me, or the rather large Toyota logo in the middle of a Test kit a bit too much?” Meadows posed.

“It’s not you,” was a quick reply from cricket stats guru Ric Finlay.

“Yep, hate it,” was another response.

“Yep looks ridiculous,” replied a third.

Toyota has been a partner of CA since 2012 and the deal has included wide use of hybrid vehicles by the governing body, a note to Cummins’ views on climate change.

The men’s Test team was sponsored by Qantas for the recent Ashes series in England.