PERTH, Dec 6: A 16-year-old self-confessed cricket nut has become the owner of one of the hottest pair of batting gloves in the game — those worn by New Zealand opener Lou Vincent when he cracked a century in his Test debut here.

Vincent, 23, presented the gloves to Christ Church Grammar School student Nick Gianotti in Perth at the end of the drawn third Test Tuesday.

“He said he wanted to give them to me as a token of his appreciation for my support during the game,” Gianotti said Thursday.

“I met Lou by chance at a Kiwi practice session just before the Test and then went to have a chat with him a couple of times every day during the game.

“He told me he was going to make a hundred on the first day and he was true to his word.

“He said he wanted to give me a little gift because I had been such a good supporter. I was shocked. It’s fantastic. “

Gianotti, son of a Perth real estate man, said he planned to frame the gloves, with a picture of Vincent holding up his bat just after he completed the century, and hang them in his bedroom.—AFP