AN orange vest and a screw from the trophy — the two mementos George Bailey took from Australia’s glorious 2015 World Cup campaign.

The vest explains itself. The popular Tasmanian had worn it for the majority of the tournament as Australia’s 12th man for all but one game. He even donned it at Federation Square when the team celebrated its victory with the Australian public.

The screw? Well, it turns out Bailey managed to break the trophy in half while the team celebrated its seven-wicket win over New Zealand in the final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

“I’d been sitting on the trophy for most of the evening, and it felt sturdy, it’s a good trophy” Bailey said on the Grade Cricketer’s final podcast of the home summer. “Someone remarked that ‘I’m not sure sitting on it is a good idea in case it breaks.’

“I was standing at the time and I said: ‘Nah, look it’s as strong as anything’ and I donkey kicked it and it just snapped.

“It snapped in two and we had the civic reception at Fed Square about four hours later.”

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Hours later the trophy had been split in two. Source: News Corp Australia

While the rest of the Australian team spent the early hours of the morning sleeping off the night before, Bailey was dashing around the city looking for help.

“I’ve never sobered up so quickly, frantically going through the Yellow Pages looking for a welder to get this thing back together.

“I’m heading around Melbourne trying to get this thing fixed and it gets fixed but it’s not in A1 condition.”

Forget about A1 condition — by the time Bailey got back to the team hotel the trophy was in such fragile health that he had to lead an impromptu team meeting.

“I take the World Cup into the team room and say, ‘Lads, it’s back in one piece but the rule is today if you’re going to pick it up, pick it up using both handles, preferably two people holding it at all times if we can.’”

Alas, there was one big absentee from the team talk — the captain.

“He walked in five minutes later, picked it up one handed and the whole thing just fell apart again.”

Fortunately for Bailey, it turned out the ICC was prepared for such a situation.

“I’m thinking this is a disaster, and our media manager says ‘that’s okay, we’ll just use a replica’. So I missed four hours of valuable sleep time. I needed that sleep.”

At least Bailey got a lovely keepsake from the whole affair.

“My two World Cup mementos are the orange 12th man vest and one of the screws out of the trophy from when I broke it.”