Team New Zealand is the first-ever World Test Champions. Team Blackcaps won the inaugural WTC final against India at Ageas Bowl, Southampton and they will take home the amount of $1.6 million alongside the prestigious ICC Test Championship Mace.
The prestigious new mace trophy of 2021 has been entirely handcrafted in Thomas Lyte’s London-based silver workshop. The original Mace was designed back in 2000 by world-renowned Thomas Lyte trophy designer, Trevor Brown.
Earlier Test Mace was given to the team which used to be on the top of Men’s ICC Test Team ranking and with the introduction of WTC final, it will be handed over to the champion team. Currently World Test Champions the Blackcaps have Mace under their possession.
Design & Craft of ICC World Test Championship mace
The Mace is overall designed with the help of sterling silver and gold plates. The long handlebar of the Mace looks like a stump in cricket but with a silver-gold Laurel band revolving around it which symbolizes success. The base is designed with the help of hardwood and the most eye-catchy thing in the marquee trophy is the gold plates cricket ball on the top surrounded by the global map engraved in it.
Kevin Baker the CEO and founder of the luxury English trophy manufacturer Thomas Lyte, addressed that trophy exemplifies the international reach of the game of cricket and the World Test Championship.
What was the inspiration behind the World Test Championship Mace?
“One of the moments that inspired the design was seeing a cricketer grab a stump as a souvenir after a particularly close match. As the stump was waved aloft it occurred to me that a Mace could stand out against a typical cup design and be something different,” revealed Brown.
How Mace is different from a trophy?
A causal trophy has a body with two handles for a veil, and no matter how sophisticated it is, trophies are nowhere near to a Mace.
“It’s not run in the mill,” says Lee Bull, master craft man.” If you look at it closely, the most complicated part is the cage at the top that surrounds the cricket ball with the map applied to it. That was done by silversmith Chloe Robertson,” he explains.
The nations of the planet are assisted on the longitude lines you see on a globe which produces a bunch of reflections against the golden cricket ball. To create a shape of a globe hot forging was used with over 700 degrees Celsius temperatures to bend the rods before they were liquefied together to give a shape of the globe. Carrying the symbol of 12 Test-playing nations the world is surrounded by a central belt, there is also extra space to add other teams in the future.
Bringing the alignments right was a significant step for the fitting of the engraving.
“We use a special sort of cutter to get a nice contrast from the brightness of the cut so when it hits the light you get a bit of dance from the light,” explained engraver John Bate.
Proud at work?
“I have made a lot of trophies around the world but when you see the final piece, you do get a sense of pride. I have always enjoyed this job and I love creating things. The Mace looks so impressive,” said Bull.
“We are honoured to have crafted many of the world’s most iconic sporting trophies, and the illustrious World Test Championship Mace is unlike any other we have made and this makes it all the more special,” said Baker before adding, “We are a Royal Warrant Holder as goldsmiths and silversmiths to Her Majesty the Queen, so we often work with ceremonial objects, but to combine this tradition with that of a sporting trophy has been a fantastic challenge for our designers and makers”.
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