The mystery surrounding Australia’s recently retired opener David Warner’s lost baggy green has been solved.
Warner had misplaced the bag carrying his Test hat, the baggy green, only days before his last Test against Pakistan in Sydney, and had made an emotional appeal on social media for it to be returned, even offering a prize to whomever returned it.
It nearly became a national issue in Australia, with even Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pleading with the culprit to return the bag.
However, the Sydney Morning Herald has reported that the suitcase carrying Warner’s Test cap never left the Intercontinental hotel in Double Bay and was found among the rest of the team’s luggage.
The rucksack had been put in a “half coffin” cricket bag, which is typically used to transport smaller pieces of equipment for players and staff, rather than one of three larger “full coffin” bags indicated by Warner as most likely to hold the backpack.
Confusion about whether the backpack was in a half or full coffin bag led to Warner, his wife Candice, and team workers being unable to identify the bag when the batsman went looking for his baggy green caps before of the SCG Test.
The bag containing Warner’s backpack and hats was put in a different section of the room to his other luggage, with its “David Warner” label buried below, invisible as more frantic searches were done in the lead-up to the SCG Test’s first day.
This also raised questions about whether all luggage had been examined, since Warner went public with the fact that his backpack and “baggy greens” were missing.
On January 4, team manager Catherine Wightman performed another search through all 64 bags, and Warner’s backpack was discovered in time for him to reclaim his caps for the remaining two days of his penultimate Test.