I suppose it was inevitable that such a gratuitous photo would evoke such questionable imagery from our readers for our latest caption competition: Alastair Cook pictured with a naked, painted lady.
"Why can't I open with her? Rather see her on the other side of the pitch than Andrew Strauss," suggested Ashish Sharma. A fair effort and at least it was vaguely polite, though Strauss might beg differ. Jeremy Stevens from Canada had other ideas. "Okay. First we'll teach you how to hold a bat the right way...then we'll teach you how to dress the right way."
Gregory Duke, a senior research fellow at Niagara University, began the proverbial ball rolling with this side-splitter: "Alastair was hoping for two things: water-soluble paint, and a spot of rain". A winning entry from Gregory there, appealing to our warped sense of humour. "Did you hear that Emma, they think we're twins!" honked Dave Ridyard from the States but Steve Davies rather confused us with this rather odd offering. "If there's grass on the wicket, let's play cricket!" Yes indeed. Thankfully, Neil Cozzi was wittier with his effort: "Cook becomes first player to be victim of a first-class maiden". Very droll.
"Cook struggles with bat after England's new one day kit is unveiled," dead-panned Graham Theobold but our favourite came from Thomas Lawlor who, rather impressively, managed to include Shane Warne into his curious quip. "Warne denies that his mother's diet pills have any side effects". Special mention to Matt Lewis: "'How does your box stay in when you run?' asks Cook". His was one of dozens to offer similar risqué sentiments.
Prizes, then, to Thomas, Graham, Gregory, Neil and Jeremy. We'll have another competition for you in a couple of weeks.