Very Superstitious [Part 234]

If you had to guess which member of the England squad had 'a slightly strangely formed kneecap on his left knee', you'd probably head for Graeme Swann, and you'd be correct.

It hasn't held him back. He can counterbalance any effects of its weird shape with the application of superstition and ritual, a tip he tried to pass along to his old Northants mucker Mike Hussey in Melbourne.

'I said to Hussey that day, and I’ve said to him since, he messed with the cricketing gods. He changed his stickers. He had blue stickers before, when he scored all those runs, but his sponsor had obviously got a new range out and they made him bat in orange pads and orange stickers. Never do that! I’m a very superstitious character.'

'I’ve always believed that if something works, don’t change it. I don’t agree in upsetting whoever’s up there looking down over us.'

Swann did not explain how he copes with his own switch in stickers, but we await...

Brief Encounter

Idling along High Street Kensington today, just out of the tube station and heading slightly against the tide, I glanced up and thought, 'Oh, that bloke looks like Shane Watson'. Then I realised it was Shane Watson, in a cheery yellow T-shirt. Skulking along next to him, looking like his sidekick in a grey T-shirt and baseball hat, was the captain of Australia, RT Ponting. 

Having spent most of the summer watching them play, it seemed strangely normal to see them walking up the street. I almost nodded hello before I remembered I don't actually know them.

A few minutes later came Mike Hussey, who was uttering the sentence, 'just ask Alex to get them for you' to his mate. Who Alex is and what s/he can get will forever remain a mystery...