What’s in a nickname?

Ever wondered the hows and whys of player nicknames? AFP has helped out with the background on a few of the monikers, starting with the easy one of Ricky ‘Punter’ Ponting, who likes betting. Michael Vaughan is called ‘Virgil’ after his apparent likeness for one of The Thunderbirds puppets and Glenn McGrath is ‘Pigeon’ after his bird-like legs.

"A lot of mind-power has gone into some nicknames," Adam Gilchrist, who wore ‘Churchy’ on his back during the Twenty20 against England in January, said. "A young autograph hunter once approached me and said: 'Excuse me Eric Gilchurch, can I have your autograph?'"

Brett Lee, who is not at the World Cup, goes by ‘Bing’ after the New South Wales electronics store and also gets ‘Oswald’ in a reference to JFK’s assassin. At the beginning of a game involving both the Lee brothers and Ian Harvey, Steve Waugh read out the batting order: “Lee, Harvey and ... Oswald.”

Brad Hodge is ‘Dodgeball’ while Brad Hogg is ‘The Postman’ after his former job and not for any resemblance to Kevin Costner. In the England squad Ian Bell has been called ‘Boyband’ and ‘The Shermanator’, especially by Shane Warne, while Andrew ‘Fred’ Flintoff has also been ‘SuperFred’, ‘Mr InFredible’ and ‘Fredalo’. Monty Panesar is Parmesan Tony, which is an anagram of his name, while New Zealand’s 6ft 8in Peter Fulton is ‘Two-Metre Peter’.