"Many fear that we will descend into a situation in which it is open season on people with no pants on and that, as a result, streaking will be forced underground, where it can't be policed. Alternatively, streakers may feel that they have no option but to start padding up for their own protection. And call me old-fashioned, but that's going to defeat the point somewhat."

-- Giles Smith, the Times on Line

Read the entire article here

This is apparently not the first time Andrew Symonds has found himself in the middle of a row, and the hapless streaker could have chosen a better moment for his run. As the commentator notes, Symonds also works out with a professional rugby team and, as he doesn't note, has a reputation for being, well, kind of a jock.

If you've had a view of cricket as a genteel game played by some la-di-da chaps in white outfits, this moment seems terribly out of place, but there seems to be a sort of no-holds-barred attitude towards sport among athletes whose nations abut the Indian Ocean. As at least one of my sons saw at an international field hockey tournament, it's possible to play that sport in much the same spirit as rugby, too (I think the team noted there was from Kenya), while I knew a tennis player from the Punjab in college who -- even separated from his opponent by a net -- managed to turn his chosen sport into a theater for physical intimidation.

Anyway, nobody on either team seems terribly surprised by what befalls this unlucky prat, while I thought the utter cluelessness of the announcers and the write-up by the columnist made it all worth sharing.