Oh, Crumbs!
In cutbacks they believe will save them £1m (R23.38m), co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe will close the staff canteen at Old Trafford and replace the free lunches currently on offer with fruit. Manchester United’s largest single minority shareholder will also implement a similar move at the club’s Carrington training base, with only players receiving lunch for free. Non-playing staff there will be offered soup and bread. Crumbs! They had better keep the windows and door shut as the birds may get there first.
Have your cake and smear it
A birthday “cake smear” is a messy tradition that has taken hold in cricket at a rapid rate, especially as more players have been exposed to the Indian Premier League. A slice of cake is offered to the birthday boy or girl and before they take a bite their faces are smeared with icing, cream, crumbs and maybe a cherry. The Proteas have had a busy few days of birthdays in Pakistan, starting with media manager Lucy Davey — who was allegedly smeared by Keshav Maharaj — followed a few days later by Wiaan Mulder and then Tabraiz Shamsi.
Not a piece of cake for Ox
Staying with the theme, confectionery connoisseur Ox Nche continues to surprise and charm his Instagram followers. The burly Bok prop is not averse to showing his soft side and poking fun at himself on the platform. One of his latest offerings sees him showcasing the pitfalls of being a content creator. Nche’s video, a collaboration with a major beauty and personal care brand, basically amounts to a blooper reel as he mistakenly sprays deodorant in his face, mispronounces the action of soaping up his body, rubs body lotion too suggestively on his arm, while a hadeda also annoyingly chimes in. Nche reckons he did not know content creating was so demanding. And we thought, for him at least, it would be a piece of cake.
Carragher offside on Afcon
Former Liverpool and England player Jamie Carragher was spewing a whole lot of balderdash the other day, reducing the prestigious Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) to a non-event — one he suggests Liverpool and Egypt striker Mo Salah must ignore this season if he wants to win the Ballon d’Or or Fifa’s best player award. How can someone who’s never won any major tournament speak so badly about Afcon, many people wondered. African legends such as Nigeria’s Austin “Jay Jay” Okocha and many of Carragher’s former colleagues in Europe had to give him a quick lecture on what Afcon is all about.
Just toying around
Coach and former provincial batter Geoffrey Toyana this week took to the ex-Twitter social media platform to remind all of the birthday he shares with the illustrious Graeme Pollock. Toyana, the swashbuckling, blade flashing, devil-may-care left hander, posted side-by-side pictures of him and Pollock hitting cover drives accompanied by the self- deprecating text: “2 of the Greatest Left handers of all time born today, one is on 81* the other still getting his eye in *.” Judging from Toyana’s picture in which the bat handle appears to be twisting in his hands, fourth slip was probably eyeing a catch.
Prop’s pod
Former Bok prop Gurthrö Steenkamp is the latest ex-player to pull up a chair behind a microphone. Steenkamp, who played in more than 50 Tests, is sharing his wisdom and experience as co-host of the podcast Lessons From The Game. The podcast dives into “performance, mindset and resilience” and is five episodes deep. Given how generously Steenkamp shares when being interviewed, listeners will find the podcast thoroughly enlightening.
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