The Wanganui Marist premier 1 cricket team has been forced to start the Twenty/20 season in a retro strip as it struggles to solve the mystery of the missing new uniform bag.
The side started the season in its brand spanking new Silks Audit-sponsored lime green strip last year, but after the final day of the one-day format just before Christmas the uniform bag was inadvertently left behind in the Victoria Park changing rooms.
Club captain Brett Turner said by the time the mistake was discovered the bag packed with all 15 shirts and 15 pairs of pants had disappeared.
"The weekend after we played our final one-day game there was a match between the Wanganui and Taranaki under-16 representative sides and the changing rooms were unlocked all that day. We have contacted both teams and nobody knows anything about our strip. The annoying thing is that all the gear belonging to the under-16 teams was laying about in the unlocked changing rooms while they played and nothing was taken," Turner said yesterday.
"Whether someone has inadvertently taken the bag or it's been an opportunistic theft remains a mystery.
"The silly thing is that whoever has taken it can't use the strip - it's a high viz electric lime green uniform with Silks Audit Marist emblazoned across the chest and stomach area of the shirts. You couldn't wear it unless you belonged to a road gang it's that bright, so whoever has it is all dressed up with nowhere to go," Turner said.
In today's environment sports teams often struggle with sponsorship and to replace the strip would cost in the region of $1000.
"It's tough enough getting sponsorship, so replacing ours is a major. We have been forced to wear our old uniform for the twenty/20 season that's just started."
Turner said the team uniforms were packed in a "fairly nondescript" brown duffle bag with no writing on the outer.
Anyone with information about the missing bag and team strip can email Turner at brett.thepirate.turner@gmail.com
