London Dave
30 Oct 2001, 03:29
Age (and SMH) readers probalby saw this, and I found it hilarious!
http://www.theage.com.au/sport/2001/10/29/FFX0QOHOBTC.html
Slater, one short
He can't take a trick, that Michael Slater. Having lost his place in the Australian team for the final Test of the Ashes tour and also suffering on the personal front, news now of yet another big hiccup.
No Test player wears the baggy green with more pride than the New South Wales opener as evidenced by his ritual of kissing the badge on his helmet every time he scores a century.
So it will come as no surprise to learn that when the Australian Cricket Board recently decided to allocate every Test player in history with their own number (starting with one to 12 for members of our very first Test team), no player embraced his more than Slater.
What's more, like several of his team mates, he has since had his number, 356, together with the Australian coat of arms, tattooed on his body and his flashy new red Ferrari even carries the personalised registration number MS 356.
Now there's just one trouble with this. You see, on the day Slater played his first Test - in the first Ashes match against England at Manchester in 1993 - so did Western Australian paceman Brendon Julian, but, thinking the numbers would be allocated by batting order, Slater assumed he had been given No. 356 and Julian 357.
It was only recently that he discovered the numbers were in fact allocated alphabetically.
His number is not 356 at all - that's Julian's.
His is 357.
Anybody got some paint and a good rubber?
http://www.theage.com.au/sport/2001/10/29/FFX0QOHOBTC.html
Slater, one short
He can't take a trick, that Michael Slater. Having lost his place in the Australian team for the final Test of the Ashes tour and also suffering on the personal front, news now of yet another big hiccup.
No Test player wears the baggy green with more pride than the New South Wales opener as evidenced by his ritual of kissing the badge on his helmet every time he scores a century.
So it will come as no surprise to learn that when the Australian Cricket Board recently decided to allocate every Test player in history with their own number (starting with one to 12 for members of our very first Test team), no player embraced his more than Slater.
What's more, like several of his team mates, he has since had his number, 356, together with the Australian coat of arms, tattooed on his body and his flashy new red Ferrari even carries the personalised registration number MS 356.
Now there's just one trouble with this. You see, on the day Slater played his first Test - in the first Ashes match against England at Manchester in 1993 - so did Western Australian paceman Brendon Julian, but, thinking the numbers would be allocated by batting order, Slater assumed he had been given No. 356 and Julian 357.
It was only recently that he discovered the numbers were in fact allocated alphabetically.
His number is not 356 at all - that's Julian's.
His is 357.
Anybody got some paint and a good rubber?