20 April 2008

Sexuality and cricket statistics

On converting good scores into centuries, from an article about Brendon McCullum:

His IPL debut follows on from a no-less-extraordinary 170 from 108 balls for Otago against Auckland in New Zealand's State Shield final last month, two innings that could herald the opening of the floodgates. "Flem always said hundreds are for poofs," McCullum joked during the recent England Test series, an opinion he might soon be forced to revise. "My conversion-rate does bother me a little bit, but saying that, hopefully I've got another ten years left in the game. With the lessons I've learnt, if I can keep going and keep learning, the numbers will look after themselves."

Perhaps McCullum should've specified some heavy rabbit-ears irony in the quoted phrase "hundreds are for poofs", unless he wants to get his ex-captain in a spot of bother! 

I remember a televised music awards ceremony from Queensland in the late 80s or early 90s in which the inexplicably ubiquitous Aussie singer John Farnham (the Australian Cliff Richard) won several awards and started crying with joy on stage, at which point he inadvertently blurted, "Aw, you'll all think I'm a poof or something".  Oops.  As it happens, he won yet another award and was able to point out that, on reflection, there wasn't anything wrong with being a poof per se... because poofs probably buy John Farnham records too.  Inexplicably.  
- Source: 'Mac the Knife', Cricinfo, 20 April 2008

No comments: