Ringers galore

With the Fly Emirates XI gaining the services of a proper ringer - Shahid Afridi - for the inaugural Emirates Airline Twenty20 competition, Andy Bull in his blog on the Guardian website recalls similar roles played by Ian Botham, Geoff Boycott and Kevin Pietersen.

It was not so long ago that Kevin Pietersen turned out for Newick CC, tempted into playing by club captain Piers Morgan, who dispiritingly won KP over by offering a brief encounter with Simon Cowell in part exchange (The Spin wonders if Emirates got Afridi so cheaply). Pietersen's off-spin was carted for successive sixes by a 42-year-old businessman named Mark Symonds, though KP did at least clean bowl a cocky student who had attempted to switch-hit him over long-off.