Cricket Kit Guide: Whites, Colours & Custom Designs

Summer 2026 is the summer of sport. Cricket is growing rapidly, and benefitting from the hype surrounding all team sports this year. Everyone wants a slice of the cricket action, to enjoy the summer sunshine, and make friendships that last a lifetime.

And somewhere in all of that, your club is halfway through its own season – with whites that have seen better days and a colts section that’s grown again since April.

Whatever level you play at, this is the summer to get your cricket kit right. Here’s everything a grassroots club needs to know – including the bits nobody selling you kit usually says out loud.

Cricket whites or coloured kit – what does your club actually need?

For most clubs, the answer is both.

Whites are still the standard for league cricket on a Saturday. Traditional, smart, and – let’s be honest – unforgiving. Here’s our unpopular opinion: most clubs buy their whites twice. Once cheap in April, when the budget’s tight and the catalogue price looks tempting. Then again – properly – the following spring, after a season of watching them go grey, go see-through, and go baggy by August. Buying cheap whites isn’t saving money; it’s renting disappointment.

Coloured kit is where club cricket is heading fast. Midweek T20 leagues, Sunday friendlies, junior softball formats – they all give your club a chance to wear something that’s unmistakably yours. Your colours, your crest, your sponsor, printed straight into the fabric.

That printing method matters. Every Decathlon Club cricket shirt is fully sublimated – the design is part of the fabric, not sitting on top of it. So your club badge won’t crack in the wash and your sponsor’s logo won’t peel mid-season. It’s also why our whites stay white: the fabric is built for repeated washing at the temperatures cricket kit actually needs. If you choose whites, we can send you samples so you can see exactly what colour white or cream your team likes best. Yes… there are more than one!

How to judge a pair of whites (wherever you buy them)

Use this checklist on any supplier – including us:

• The wet test. Whites that turn translucent in light rain or heavy sweat are cut from fabric that’s too thin. Ask the supplier about fabric weight before you order; if they can’t answer, that’s your answer.
• Reinforcement where cricket actually happens. Knees, thighs and seat take the punishment – grass stains, boundary dives, six hours in the field. Look for double stitching and reinforced panels there, not just a smart collar.
• Colourfastness. Good whites survive a full season of washes without yellowing or greying. Ask what temperature the fabric is rated for – sweat-soaked cricket kit needs proper washing, not a delicate cycle.
• Room to move. A cricket shirt needs a longer body and freer shoulders than a football shirt. If your keeper can’t crouch or your opening bowler feels the seams, the cut’s wrong.
• Breathability. Lightweight, moisture-wicking fabric keeps bowlers comfortable at the top of their mark and keeps the slip cordon sane at 4pm in July.

Not sure where to start? Our kit designer lets you design the whole thing yourself – or your account manager will design it with you, free, until it’s exactly right.

Making whites last: the care guide nobody gives you

However good your whites are, how you treat them decides whether they last one season or four. Pin this to the clubhouse noticeboard:

• Pre-treat grass stains the same day. A dab of stain remover or washing-up liquid worked into the mark before it sets beats any amount of hot washing a week later.
• Skip the bleach. Chlorine bleach yellows modern synthetic fabrics rather than whitening them. An oxygen-based whitener is the safe option.
• Wash whites together, promptly. Sweat left in kit over a week is what causes permanent greying – not the washing machine.
• Line-dry, out of direct sun. Tumble-drying is the fastest way to shrink waistbands and crack any printed detail. UV over a full summer can yellow whites too.

None of that requires buying anything from anyone. But it does double the working life of whatever kit your club already owns.

Junior cricket kit: a guide for parents and coaches

If you run a youth section, you know the drill: kids grow, kit doesn’t.

Here’s the thing clubs get wrong: they treat junior kit as a cosmetic nicety. It isn’t. A nine-year-old in the same design as the first XI feels like part of the club; a nine-year-old in a faded hand-me-down from the lost-property bin feels like a name on the register. Mismatched junior kit is a retention problem, not a cosmetic one – and retention is the whole game in junior sport.

A few things we’ve learned from kitting out junior cricket clubs across the UK:

• Size up, sensibly. One size up gives a season’s growing room without the “borrowed from dad” look. Our sizing guide covers junior sizes properly – and your account manager can talk you through a mixed order for a squad of different shapes and sizes.
• Match the seniors. Same design, same crest, same colours as the first XI. Small thing, big signal.
• Order together. A club-wide junior order keeps the cost per player down, and our free online club shop means parents order and pay for their own sizes directly. No spreadsheets, no chasing payments, no bin bags of shirts in the clubhouse.

Women’s and girls’ cricket kit: the fastest-growing corner of the club game

That’s not a marketing line – it’s the ECB’s own maths. Over 1,000 new women’s and girls’ teams were added in 2024 alone – 25% growth in women’s teams and 21% in girls’ teams in a single year – and the number of women’s and girls’ teams has more than doubled since 2016. A home Women’s T20 World Cup has done exactly what home tournaments do: filled junior nets with girls who watched the final and want in.

If your club is starting or growing a women’s or girls’ section, kit is one of the easiest ways to show it’s a proper part of the club, not an afterthought. That means:

• Proper women’s fit – not “small men’s”. Cuts designed for the players wearing them, in the same club colours and crest as every other team.
• No minimum-order headaches. New sections start small. Our minimum order is just 5 items, so a brand-new girls’ team can look the part from their very first net session.
• Room to grow. When the section doubles next spring (it will – see the numbers above), we’ll match your existing design exactly for the new intake.

Mid-season top-ups: quicker than you think

Halfway through the season is exactly when kit gaps appear. New signings, growth spurts, a jumper that went home in the wrong bag in May.

The good news: topping up doesn’t mean starting again. We keep your design on file and match it exactly – same colours, same crest, same sponsor placement. Minimum 5 items, all-inclusive pricing, and most orders delivered within 6 weeks. Tell us your deadline up front and we’ll give you an honest answer on timing.

We went to Granada, Spain to play a 6 a side cricket tournament, so decided to order custom kits, the kits arrived promptly and exceeded expectations, with quality fit and material, the colours are brilliant, the badges, names and numbers are very well done. Our account manager was a huge help and helped through the whole process even with me pestering him he was happy to help and answered everything. So thank you so much.

– Alex

Get your club sorted for the rest of the summer

From Saturday whites to a junior section in club colours, custom cricket kit from Decathlon Club is all-inclusive: names, numbers, badge and sponsors in the price, free design help, and a free online club shop with every order.

England’s summer is just getting started. Make sure your club’s is too.

Design your cricket kit or get a free quote from our team.