Ian Healy’s returned baggy green offers David Warner glimmer of hope

David Warner’s disappearing baggy green cap may be gone forever, or it might just turn up in the most unusual place. Just ask Ian Healy, writes BEN HORNE.

David Warner’s disappearing baggy green cap may be gone forever, or it might just turn up in the most unusual place.

Ask Ian Healy.

The uncanny theft of Warner’s beloved caps on the eve of his farewell Test match, prompted Healy to recall the bizarre story of how his baggy was stolen – and then magically returned.

Harry Solomons, the owner of Sydney cricket store institution Kingsgrove Sports – and renowned memorabilia collector – had a bloke walk into his shop one day in the mid-1990s claiming to have Ian Healy’s baggy green.

Solomons asked the man how he’d obtained such a possession and he claimed Healy had given it to him over the fence at the SCG.

Believing the man’s story, Solomons paid him $1000 for the cap and duly put it on display in the public museum in his Kingsgrove store.

David Warner has donned a replacement baggy green for his final Test. Picture: Tom Parrish

Sometime later, Test captain Mark Taylor walked into Kingsgrove Sports (as many greats of the game have done over the store’s iconic 49-year existence) and during conversation with Solomons, told him how teammates had gear stolen out of the SCG dressing rooms during the Test.

Solomons asked: “would one of those items happen to be Ian Healy’s Test cap?”

Like Warner’s theft, Healy believes his cap was also stolen out of his bag.

“I was told a cleaner who did the rooms took it,” Healy told this masthead.

“It was the mid-1990s, maybe a bit earlier.

“I think Ian McDonald (team manager) organised a spare cap for me and we flew one up for Melbourne.

“It would not have been on a hook. It would have been in my bag. I remember it came back the same season and I ended up with a few caps.

“I was a bit bewildered and felt a bit of anger towards the security but I can’t remember it being a big storm.”

Despite the $1000 he had lost buying Healy’s bootlegged baggy, Solomons immediately returned it to Healy – who happened to be a rival in the cricket gear game.

Ian Healy and his baggy green. Picture: Graham Crouch

Healy was a part-owner in the Greg Chappell Cricket Centre in Brisbane, but appreciated the kind gesture from Solomons so much so he sent him down signed cricket gloves and pads to replace the stolen baggy in the museum.

“Even though Harry is a rival in the sports retailing business, we have always got along well and I felt gratitude to Harry for getting it back,” Healy said.

Author of the soon to be republished book, ‘The Baggy Green’, veteran cricket reporter Mike Coward tells the story of multiple Test cricketers who had their caps stolen.

Jason Gillespie had his cap stolen only for it to be returned to the front office of the South Australia Cricket Association.

Ashley Mallett had two caps stolen throughout his career, while Ricky Ponting had his original baggy pinched in Sri Lanka in 1999 and from that moment carried its replacement in his hand luggage wherever he went.

Warner is still waiting for his caps to be returned after they were elaborately stolen out of a backpack he had packed inside his luggage enroute from Melbourne to Sydney before the Test.

Originally published as Ian Healy’s returned baggy green offers David Warner glimmer of hope