G'day 'mite: Colin Miller shops at Crawford Market in Mumbai Hamish Blair / © Getty Images

It's the most wonderful time of the year - when lists are made, wallets are emptied and stores are inundated with last-minute panic shoppers. 'Tis the season for shopping and our cricketers aren't immune to a bit of retail therapy as well. On long tours, you sometimes want to take a bit of home with you. For Colin Miller, home tastes like road salt and burnt rubber, or what Australians know as Vegemite.

All that travel also means you occasionally get the chance to restock your wardrobe, as Sachin Tendulkar did in Durban.

Trendulkar: Sachin's glad he found the petite section Rajesh Jantilal / © AFP/Getty Images

Kit bags are great holdalls for for bats, balls, shoes, jerseys, pads, helmets, gloves, grips, stickers, babies, snacks and drinks. For suits, though, not so much.

Charlie Griffith only likes his creases on the cricket field © Getty Images

Real shoppers know the best deals are to be had on the streets and in the bazaars of the subcontinent. Fanie de Villiers and Steve Palframan may not have taken the World Cup back home to South Africa in 1996 but that just meant more luggage space for all the shopping.

No pain, no bargain: de Villiers and Palframan have this in the bag in Faisalabad Graham Chadwick / © Getty Images

World Cups are also bonanza season for merchandisers, the one time when people will buy anything in country colours. But jerseys, caps, flags and posters are passé. You want to really stand out, you have to go the whole nine yards.

Mandira Bedi models World Cup-themed saris Manan Vatstyayana / © AFP/Getty Images

Duty-free shopping exists because almost every traveller has, at some point or the other, reached the airport and panicked at the realisation that they have forgotten to buy gifts for back home. Glenn McGrath is no exception.

McGrath hunts down souvenirs at the Masai Mara duty free Hamish Blair / © Getty Images

Sometimes cricketers are to be found on the other side of the counter. Many a player has flexed their entrepreneurial muscle, with varying degrees of success. Harold Larwood used his savings from cricket to buy a confectionery store in Blackpool that he ran for four years before emigrating to Australia. New Zealand's Dion Nash founded a men's grooming products brand called Triumph and Disaster in 2011 that he continues to run today.

Willing Wonka: Larwood finds his sweet spot © PA Photos/Getty Images

Not all shopping is a celebration of commercial excess. Sometimes it's for a good cause.

Good buy: Claire Taylor shops at a Sainsbury's in aid of leukaemia research © Getty Images

And sometimes even the biggest cricket stars forget stuff at home and have to make a last-minute dash for personal-care items.

MS Dhoni stops at a convenience store in Dhaka for a comb to maintain his once-iconic coiffure Santosh Harhare / © Hindustan Times/Getty Images

Deepti Unni is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

 

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