Pick the Kit: '96 WC or 90s Lightning Bolts

Round Four of our Pick the Kit fan vote pits the strip endorsed by modern day stars Marcus Stoinis and Adam Zampa against an under-appreciated underdog in a head-to-head showdown.

Cricket Australia, with the support of kit-maker Asics and sponsor Alinta Energy, have thrown open the choice for the design of 2019-20 men's one-day uniform to Australia's fans.

Votes will be collated across the website, CA Live app and social media platforms.

Here, fans can choose between the distinctive Lightning Bolt uniform worn for two summers in the early 1990s and the World Cup kit from 1996. Read on for a stroll down memory lane for each kit before voting.

VOTING IS NOW CLOSED. The Lightning Bolts won 60% of the vote compared to 40% for the 1996 World Cup kit

The fan vote will be run in a head-to-head format until there's a final winner from the shortlist of eight uniforms worn by some of the greats of Australian cricket in the golden age between 1980 and 1999.

The 1993-94 Lightning Bolts

Has there ever been a more electrifying uniform in cricket? Pardon the pun, but this really was high voltage stuff.

Seven thin jagged bolts of white lightning streak down the front and back of the shirt, across the shoulders, with shading of red and a thicker green giving it a kind of three-dimensional effect. An angled font in block letters – with larger As at either end – emblazon the team name across the sternum.

With the early 90s bringing us the baseball-inspired kit and colourful 1992 World Cup strip featured elsewhere in this Pick the Kit competition, the emergence of the lightning bolts brought with it an injection of talent.

There are some famous names to have played their first ODIs on Australian soil in this kit, including Damien Martyn, Glenn McGrath and a young man named Shane Keith Warne.

This kit was only worn for home matches across the 1992-93 and 1993-94 summers, with an ODI series in England in May 1993 played in white clothes.

Australia won 12 of their 21 ODIs overall in the lightning bolts; they lost to the West Indies in the final of the 1992-93 World Series that also featured Pakistan, but inspired by Warne and a run glut from Mark Waugh, they triumphed over South Africa in the 1993-94 summer that also featured New Zealand.

Having made his ODI debut earlier that year, Warne dominated that 1993-94 campaign, taking 22 wickets in 10 matches.

The 1996 World Cup

The 1996 World Cup featured the only tournament final that Australia has lost, as well as a unique and rarely seen kit that riffed on the colourful motif seen in the previous event in 1992.

This strip features a spectrum of colour from competing nations that arrows across the sternum, with golden shoulders and sleeves crowned by a forest green colour. This spectrum sits above a thick green band with 'Australia' in bold gold lettering, while the bottom of the shirt features widely-spaced vertical stripes of white and green.

It was complimented by the Australian Gold floppy – as preferred by Shane Warne – or a baseball cap that features the outline of a star and green brim with a Southern Cross motif.

The '96 World Cup was jointly hosted by India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and controversy dogged the event before a ball was bowled with Australia and the West Indies both refusing to play in Colombo following a terrorist attack in the city earlier in the year.

Sri Lanka were awarded both matches – pushing them immediately into the finals – meaning Australia played their first game in India, rolling over Kenya before a showdown with the hosts in Mumbai. A century to Mark Waugh and 5-36 from Damien Fleming secured a narrow 16-run win before the Aussies trounced Zimbabwe and fell in their final group game to the West Indies.

Another ton to Mark Waugh helped them overcome a valiant New Zealand side in the quarter-final, setting up a rematch with the West Indies. Stuart Law hit 72 but Australia faltered to reach just 8-207 and looked in danger of being bundled out until Warne – as he so often did – imposed his will on the big stage and took 4-36 in nine mesmerising overs as the Windies were bowled out five runs short of their target.

On to Lahore for the final, where an Aravinda de Silva masterclass put paid to hopes of what would have been a second World Cup title for the Aussies. Mark Taylor top scored with 74 but de Silva's 3-42 and an unbeaten 107 guided Sri Lanka to a seven-wicket win that the island nation still celebrates.