The Spin | Phones, sweets and sandpaper: a pocket history of cricketers’ unusual items

The mobile that fell out of Tom Bailey’s trousers when he was batting isn’t the strangest thing players have secreted in their whitesWhen Tom Bailey’s mobile phone fell out of his pocket on Saturday as he was turning for a quick second during Lancashire’s Championship match with Gloucestershire, it brought some cheap laughs, as well as a sharp letter of warning from the ECB’s anti-corruption officer. It was also another chapter in cricket’s pocket history: from sandpaper to sandwiches. What, as Gollum pondered, has it got in its pocketses?For Derbyshire left-arm spinner Fred Swarbrook, the answer was a lucky pebble. After developing the yips, a psychologist had advised him to take a stone on to the pitch and rub it before he was about to bowl. Sadly, it didn’t work and the luckless Swarbrook was forced to retire. Continue reading...

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