Cricket Bat Diamond
As early as the seventeenth century, the British introduced the sport of cricket to the Indian subcontinent, where it is now the most popular sport. Recently, a diamond shaped like a cricket bat (figure 1) was submitted to GIA’s Mumbai laboratory for testing. In cricket, a bat is a wooden piece of equipment with a long handle attached to a flat-fronted blade, used to hit the ball. This diamond weighed 1.04 ct and measured 14.20 × 4.12 × 2.13 mm. It had a Light brown color. The bat-shaped diamond was partially polished with a rough texture retained on the tip of the handle and the front part of the bat. According to the diamond manufacturer, the original rough skin is intentionally kept in a few parts to authenticate its natural origin.
Based on spectroscopic features, it was confirmed to be type IIa with a very weak peak at 3107 cm–1 (hydrogen-related infrared absorption peak). Photoluminescence spectra collected at liquid nitrogen temperature with varying laser excitations revealed its natural origin; no color treatment was detected. A crosshatched “tatami” strain pattern was clearly observed between crossed polarizers when viewed under a microscope.
In photoluminescence spectra collected at room temperature with 405 nm excitation, this diamond also showed the presence of N3, a defect wherein a vacancy is surrounded by three nitrogen atoms.
As shown in figure 2, this special diamond is inscribed with the name and signature of Virat Kohli, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport. The owner of the diamond intends to gift it to Kohli.
