Show ponies....

Unsure what a show pony is? They are the guys or girls who make a regulation piece of sporting skill look as if ti was difficult. There are a number of them about - I'm sure you can name one at your club and certainly several amongst professional cricketers.

Dinesh Karthik - take a bow - you are Cricket Burble's first official show pony. Bangladesh's 2nd wicket today involved Karthik taking a catch above his head but it was one of those that he would have been distraught to miss. He took a small jump in the air to take the catch - so far so good. But then, inexplicably, rather than land on his feet and go and celebrate with his team, he curled his feet up underneath himself and fell backwards, so that he landed on his thigh and back, thus making the catch look a lot harder than it was.

We need to stamp this out asap, or otherwise it will be an epidemic like it is in football where goalkeepers make a diving save and rather than fall on their side, they manage to somehow roll over several times so that can be no doubt amongst the crowd just what a great save they have made.

Another show pony moment that comes to mind is Mike Hussey's catch of Kevin Pietersen in the final Ashes test earlier this year in Sydney. Hussey took what was a pretty tricky catch over his head, but just to make sure he didn't miss out on any admiration from his team-mates or the crowd, he really show-ponied it up. He took the catch with his hands out in front of him as he ran. So what did he do? Keep running in a semi-circle so that he could run back to his team to celebrate? Stumble slightly as his weight was a little off-centre and then regain his balance? No - he thrust his hands out at full stretch after he'd caught the ball (they were slightly bent when he caught the ball), and then threw himself to the ground landing on his chest, waiting on the ground for a second to make sure that he'd got maximum exposure before getting to his feet.

Show ponies must be stopped, before it's too late!