Round 1, Battle 8
We welcome our first Kiwi into a meat-grinder round, with Jesse providing most of the meat.
Jesse Ryder (New Zealand)
Crimes:
- Fat
- Used his God-given gifts of visual perception on the bottom of pint glasses
- Set standard for has-been cricketers going into boxing
- Diagnoses self as fit enough for IPL, not fit enough for internationals
"I'm pretty desperate to stay on the right track and be a Black Cap." -
Is that so,
Jesse,
please tell us more
"I'm 102 or 103 days sober now." - Ryder conflates 'sober' and 'pregnant'
"Don't you know who I am? I'm New Zealand cricket." - Ryder trying to jump the queue at the local ER, after breaking his hand in a bar fight
"Ryder may have the longest lower abdominal strain in history - someone with a heart transplant would have been back quicker." - Adam Parore
Sir Geoffrey Boycott (England)
Crimes:
- Insipid, selfish batsman
- Notorious for hogging the strike, with his partner's wicket being an acceptable risk
-
Making a double century so boring it was a droppable offence
- Presiding over Yorkshire's worst period in county cricket history
- In his own class of socially inept
-
Domestic violence soap opera
"He can be so rude to people that sometimes you just want to punch his lights out." - Mark Nicholas, MMA aspirant
"The frequent imperfections of Boycott's running between the wickets paled into insignificance when set beside the awfulness of his various attempts to be a cricket captain." - Leo McKinstry
"You have done for Australian cricket what the Boston Strangler did for door-to-door salesmen." - Hate mail received on an Ashes tour after another soporific ton
"I can tell thee what tha's doing wrong, lad. But I'm not going to." - Boycott to a young David Gower on tour
"Why do people not like me, David? I'm just an ordinary bloke trying to do a job." - Boycott to Gower, two years later
Harbhajan Singh (India)
Crimes:
- Obnoxious weed
-
Monkeygate, Sydney 2008
-
Murali's third bastard?
-
Breaking Sreesanth's feelings
"Tera maa ki" - You're a monkey (Australian English)/Your mother's **** was delectable (Punjabi)
"His record speaks for itself in cricket. There is a certain line that you can kind of go to and then you know where you push it and he just pushes it all the time. That's why he has been charged more than anyone that's ever played in the history of cricket." - Matthew Hayden
"Harbhajan is unfit today because he decided to raise his hand now and excuse himself." - Sanjay Manjrekar
"Once a chucker, always a chucker." - Raj Singh Dungarpur, former BCCI president
"I am God's favourite son, he has given me all." - Bhajji jabs at Jesus