Written by The Skiver.
Kiwi cricketer Iain O’Brien has long been a friend of the Balls, and there are many good reasons why we like him.
There’s his contribution to the book., arguably the finest 300 words written by a former international cricketer in the whole tome.
There’s the fact that he’s one of the very few sportspeople to have grasped how social networking works. And the fact that he has an almost Gatting-esque appetite for curry. And the fact that he not only has one of the best blogs actually written by an athlete, but it promises to reveal what is inside his head and thereby proves the theory that, for quick bowlers, the answer can sometimes be ‘nothing for whole months at a time’.
It’s not even the romantic story of a man moving to England because he’s met an girl who lives here and wants to spend the rest of his life with her, even though we’re obviously suckers for that sort of thing around here.
No, it’s because he’s a genuinely nice guy and not a complete arse like some of the cricketers you meet – mentioning no names, of course.
And because we like him, we’re also a little bit worried about him. Because yesterday, he revealed that he was going house hunting. With Angus Fraser.
You wonder what the pair of them are up to. To put it bluntly, most married men are not brave enough to go house hunting without their wife in tow. Which can only mean a new business venture, or better, still, a tv series.
I can’t quite see them as the new Phil and Kirsty, but I’m convinced they’ve been lined up to replace these guys.
The Old Justin and Colin
You can just see it, can’t you. Fraser stamping his foot angrily if the carpet and wallpaper don’t match. O’Brien doing the grunt work he’s done throughout his cricket career, dragging himself up the stairs and into the draught. In fact, yes, I can see it happening right before my very eyes…
The New Justin and Colin
(Photoshop magic courtesy of the pocket genius that is Ceci)
