Memorabilia gone mad

There’s a shirt for sale at Sportsonline.com signed by the Australian team and the members of the World XI (remember them?) The price……a tad over $4,000 of your finest Australian dollars.

Perhaps I missed the 21 carat gold edging on the shirt, or perhaps it’s made of the latest in tank resistant Kevlar, but failing that, this shirt strikes me as perhaps a tad overpriced.

On the same site, $200 will get you a ceramic cricket ball, which under the terms of the Fair Trading Act should really come with a warning along the lines of “will break into a thousand pieces if used on a hard surface”

A few minutes on the site will uncover a myriad of magically commercialised moments of cricket history to invest your hard earned dollars, pounds or rupees in.

I have never bought a piece of memorabilia despite the constant stream of messages during Tests and one-dayers encouraging me to do so. I wouldn’t get any enjoyment from them and I would be far too embarrassed to show them off to friends or family and having to confess to the price I paid. I would expect sniggers in return.

My own prized possessions are a collection of photos from games I have been to and the memories they conjure when I look at them. Cost = “minimal”……..Value = “priceless”.