Australia opts for name change but baggy green untouched

What's in a name? Plenty according to Australian cricket administrators who tomorrow introduce their third name change in 98 years when their institution becomes Cricket Australia. But fear not, the baggy green cap will remain the untouched icon of the Australian game.

When consultation was done, across the various parties involved in the governance of the Australian game, it was agreed that whatever changes were made, the cap should be untouched. So it will remain the only link with the past, the unmistakable mark of the Australian international. All other equipment and kit will feature the more modern logo featuring the traditional kangaroo and emu, and the Southern Cross, illuminated by a sunburst.

Cricket Australia's chief executive officer James Sutherland believes the new name will be more timeless than the previous ones. Since becoming the controlling body of the game in Australia in 1905, the national body was known as the Australian Board of Control for International Cricket, and then in 1973 it became the Australian Cricket Board.

Nothing is forever it seems, unless you are the Marylebone Cricket Club, although its functions have diminished as change has occurred in the game, and even cricket's ruling institution, the International Cricket Council has had name changes, from its days as the Imperial Cricket Conference and the International Cricket Conference.

As part of its bid to give cricket, across the board, a co-ordinated approach in Australia, the name change had been agreed, and accepted by all the parties concerned and those states who haven't already fallen in behind the national body are being invited to follow suit. Already there are Cricket New South Wales, Cricket Victoria and Queensland Cricket.

The new logo will also integrate more seamlessly with the new logos for the three-Test series, the VB Series, the Pura Cup and the ING logos. Mixed messages had been presented to the public in the branding of trademarks and advertising material in the past and the collective view was that the Cricket Australia option offered a better way or co-ordinating these.

The Australian public will have their first real chance to assess the changes being made to the side's international presentation in the forthcoming first Test against Bangladesh in Darwin, starting on July 18. Sutherland said he was thrilled with the way the new logo had come up and it was something that people could read into what they liked but it was representative of how Cricket Australia saw themselves.

"Our logos and branding are going to change, we're not going to see a significant in our behaviour. The one-day uniform will not change, apart from the different logo," Sutherland said.

And after all, cricket is merely catching up with a number of other Australian sporting institutions, like Basketball Australia, Athletics Australia, Australian Swimming, Soccer Australia et al.

While the timing was coincidental, the recent agreement by Australia's women's cricket body to integrate with the men's administration, has already seen the new name of Cricket Australia show its inclusive appeal. The women's changeover also occurs at midnight today.