Trophies are a wonderful way to associate victory and gives a feeling of supremacy. In all the sports round the world , trophies are given for various purposes mainly to honour the champions of the sport. The history of cricket has seen many different types of trophies over the years from ICC tournaments to bilateral series. Today in this article we will discuss 10 such weird and ugly looking cricket trophies that instantly raised eyebrows and got a lot of attention for their peculiar sight.
The first trophy in the list is the 2009 Compaq Cup. It was another masterclass from Tendulkar that earned India the Compaq Cup, powered by Intel in a tri-nations series with Sri Lanka and New Zealand. It was billed as the first digital trophy and had a huge screen on top of it in middle of a weird looking logo which didn’t look like a sports trophy from any angle. It was more of a advertisement for Intel that a trophy for winning a cricket tournament and it clearly showed.
The second trophy in the list is the DLF 2006 cup for the series between India and Pakistan. DLF has marked themselves on the memories of Indians in a very resonant manner as they were the sponsors of IPL for quite a good deal of time.
However, in 2006, the picture where Inzamamul Haque and Rahul Dravid were seen posing with the monumental trophy, send the world in shock. Quite a hefty trophy to pick, it looked awkwardly huge and heavy to be approved as a trophy for two one-day internationals between India and Pakistan to be held in United Arab Emirates
The third trophy in the list is Ashes Urn. When touring Australian side won a one-off match at The Oval in 1882. The Sporting Times in London issued a headline stating that English Cricket died at the Oval on 29th August, 1882. Later when England toured Australia in 1882-83, Ivo Bligh, the captain, was presented a small terracotta urn which is said to contain the ashes of a burnt cricket ball. The two nations do not play for the exact urn these days which waa too delicate to handle but play for replicas, which is just as weird.
The fourth trophy in the list is the 2018 TUC Cup. This one is one of the funniest of the lot. In 2018, in the UAE, Pakistan and Australia battled over the Tuc Cup which was a trophy shaped like a large biscuit. Pakistan were the more hungrier of the two teams and sweeped the series 3-0. Even the sport’s governing body ICC joked about the prize and the photos of the trophy made headlines instantly as social media went beserk with memes on the same.
The fifth trophy in the list is the Warne-Muralitharan trophy. Played between Australia and Sri Lanka, this Test series celebrates and gives tribute to the two most successful spinners of all time. Mounted on a block of wood, the hand grips Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne are captured at the point of release while bowling. The idea and concept of the trophy are good but the execution was a big mistake and it proved to be just another weird looking trophy that raised eyebrows when it came into the fray.
The sixth trophy in the list is the 1997-98 Coca Cola Cup. One-day international cricket in the 1990s and Sharjah go hand-in-hand, but some of the trophies up for grabs were a little bizarre and instantly caught attention. The top of the pile is this Coca-Cola Cup that was so huge that it took two men to lift. And to think Sachin Tendulkar scored two of his finest ODI centuries against Australia to earn India what’s essentially an oversized bottle top is really weird. This trophy will forever be remembered as one of the ugliest cricket had ever seen in its history.
The seventh trophy in the list is 2018 Oye Hoye Cup between Pakistan and New Zealand. Just like its name, the trophy was really peculiar. Oye Hoye is a potato crisps range by Pakistan’s United Snacks. When the award was unveiled it sparked a trend online owing to a less than enthusiastic reaction by Williamson at its unveiling, since the award literally had “Oye Hoye” written on it making it looks very ugly. The Black Caps won the series 2-1 and perhaps reserved a seat for it on the Emirates flight back to Auckland.
The eight trophy in the list is a pretty latest one which is the 2021 Moose Cup. One of the newest piece of cricket silverware was put into display in January 2021 between Sri Lanka and England. To use its official name, the Moose Cup Powered By Daraz, was a huge cricket ball shaped award with antlers. Moose is a new clothing company in Sri Lanka, who had sponsored the series. The award was so amazingly weird that Joe Root clicked pictures in different poses with it and it made an instant hit on social media, specially the antlers on both sides.
The ninth trophy in the list is The 2021 Bank Alfalah and Brighto Paints Test Series award. The name for the series was bigger than the duration of the entire series which made up a very comic sequence during the start of the series. The Bank Alfalah and Brighto Paints Test Series trophy for the 2021 series with the touring South Africans looks like something you were awarded at the end of season presentation when you were a youngster and not like a sports award.
The tenth and the last trophy in the list is the ICC test mace. The test mace is handed to the team who wins the ICC world test championship and is currently in the Kiwi nation. Earlier it used to be with the number one test side in ICC rankings which was India. The trophy is a mace and looks quite brilliant until you realise that the shaft of the trophy is a cricket stump. The handle is a cricket stump with a ball on the top of it and looks like a weird trophy for someone who doesn’t follow cricket frequently.
