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Any cricket follower would be challenged to keep a straight face when told the New Zealand team's latest secret weapon was a pair of trousers.
And in keeping with the best secret weapons, trying to glean information about said trousers was about as easy as scaling the walls surrounding Nottingham Castle.
Some New Zealand players have reportedly been road testing the high-tech new micro-shine trousers, which feature a patch to impart more shine to the ball and thereby help it to swing.
The micro-shines are manufactured by global sporting brand Canterbury, with a view to being officially introduced to the kit bags in October.
Also included is the micro-slide version for fielders, and the IonX BaseLayer performance underwear which is claimed to improve performance by 2.7 per cent. How that is determined is uncertain.
Team management were tight-lipped, saying no deal had yet been signed, but Britain's Press Association reported New Zealand Cricket was set to follow the Yorkshire and Hampshire sides and adopt the new gear.
It gets tricky, because most players are contractually bound to wear the trousers featuring their bat sponsors' logo, for example Gray Nicolls for captain Daniel Vettori and fellow allrounder Jacob Oram.
Reports said several pairs were "smuggled in" during the second test at Old Trafford, and one or two players tested the trousers with the logos covered by tape during last week's tour match at Northampton. The same could potentially happen in the third test starting tonight.
The micro-shines were developed under the supervision of Dipal Patel, a former engineering student at nearby Loughborough University.
"When I came into cricket I was surprised to find there are no regulations about what materials you can and can't use," he told Britain's Daily Telegraph.
"To start with, we looked at putting two patches on the bowlers' trousers - one to shine the ball, and one to scuff it up, in case you wanted to produce reverse-swing. But we have since dropped the abrasive patch. I'm a member of McC, and I didn't want to lose my membership for going against the spirit of cricket."
- NZPA
