Of all the fashion styles Michael Jackson played with in his short life — military epaulets, silver gloves, neon jackets, shortened black trousers with white socks — I think he missed an opportunity to take on cricket chic as well. Cricket whites and ODI pajamas may not sound superstar worthy, but the sweaters and jackets and baggy greens certainly amount to a posh enough look in my mind. Esquire ran a feature on this very subject last year:
“Cotton-and-cashmere cricket vest ($298) and cotton-and-linen polo shirt ($90), Polo by Ralph Lauren; cotton trousers ($235) by Canali.”
Huh. Certainly a Jackson-worthy budget, at least. MTV picked up on the game’s sartorial snobbishness when Jamie Foxx hosted a reality show “From G’s to Gents.” In the third episode, the contestants — a bunch of clueless men trying to prove their sly “G-ness” (or whatever) — had to learn “one of the most sophisticated games in the world,” all while nattily dressed in ties and cardigans. Wodehouse style, as it were.
[...] fun stuff, but it somewhat irks me that cricket is routinely portrayed as an upper-class pursuit in the Western world, and especially in America (see, for e.g., this Esquire cricket photo [...]