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Australian women’s cricketer Grace Harris recently took a playful swipe at her male teammates David Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft while recalling an amusing incident from the Women’s T20 World Cup 2023. The tournament, held in South Africa, saw Australia lift the trophy after defeating the host nation. Harris, who was part of the victorious squad, revealed her quirky habit of naming her bats after burgers, and how this tradition led to an unexpected connection to one of Australian cricket’s most infamous controversies.
Bats named after burgers: Grace Harris’ unusual ritual
Speaking on The Grade Cricketer podcast, Harris explained her unconventional way of identifying her cricket bats. Rather than numbering them as many players do, she named each bat after her favorite burgers. “I name my bats after burgers because they all have the same stickers. Some people go with numbers, but I’m a burger fan,” Harris said with a grin.
One such bat, which she had named “Zingy Stacker,” gained attention when it broke mid-game in the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) last year. Harris amusingly recounted, “I didn’t really think it was broken, but when it snapped, I just called in Zingy Stacker, my second-best bat.”
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A sandpaper joke tied to the 2018 ball-tampering scandal: Steve Smith and David Warner
During the podcast, Harris further shared how International Cricket Council (ICC) regulations during the World Cup prohibited players from writing anything on their bats, leading to a humorous dilemma for her. “It’s written just above the hyper stickers on the handle, but I had to stop because, during the World Cup, they told me no writing allowed. So, I walked around South Africa asking for sandpaper, which, as an Australian, was pretty ironic (laughs),” Harris concluded.
The comment was a tongue-in-cheek nod to the infamous ball-tampering incident in 2018, when Cameron Bancroft was caught using sandpaper to alter the condition of the ball during a Test match in South Africa, with Warner and Smith also implicated. Though Harris’s remark was clearly in jest, it referenced one of the most contentious episodes in Australian cricket history. The 2018 scandal led to lengthy bans for Warner, Smith, and Bancroft and cast a shadow over the national team’s reputation.
