Creature feature

When asked what his favourite animal was, Steve Waugh replied, "Merv Hughes". Here are some more cricketers who could be animals

	Can't easily be milked for singles © Associated Press

Chris Gayle: a sloth
Long, pendulous arms of surprising power and a strong genetic predisposition towards being stationary.

Sanath Jayasuriya: a smiling tortoise
One that, for some reason, has missiles at its disposal. It may look like a benevolent grandfather, but the damn thing's lethal.

Kevin Pietersen: a lion in a UK zoo
Raised in the wide open spaces of South Africa, it now spends its time pacing up and down, irritated by the limitations of life in Britain. It probably doesn't much like the weather either.

Jesse Ryder: a panda
Big, soft and cuddly looking; Ryder also seems like he might well return from a night out with two black eyes one day.

Mohammad Ashraful: a pet iguana
Exotic and seems to promise so much, but in the end it doesn't really do anything. It just sleeps a lot.

James Foster, number six batsman: a dachshund in a tree
How the hell did it get so high, and what is it possibly hoping to achieve up there?

Abdul Razzaq: a Laotian rock rat
Thought to have become extinct 11 million years ago, the Laotian rock rat turned up again recently. Turns out it had just been spending a few years some way out of the public eye.

Daniel Vettori: an intelligent, malevolent cow
Looks a bit boring and easily ignored, but suddenly you realise you're in the middle of the field, some way from safety and the lumbering thing's on its way to get you.

James Anderson: a whippet
Lithe, wiry and quick. There's also likely to be a man in a flat cap somewhere in the vicinity. Well, there is whenever I see him.

Lasith Malinga: a duck-billed platypus
The male duck-billed platypus has poisonous spurs on its ankles. Like Malinga, there's danger there, and it comes from much lower down than you expect it to.

Muttiah Muralitharan: a scorpion
Looks weird and angular, with one appendage appearing to bend the wrong way, yet it paralyses its prey and reaps the rewards.

Alex Bowden blogs at King Cricket

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