Andrew McDonald - Photo Wikipedia CCA
Another sterling job from the Sun today, who have never backed away from a chance to drop a funny picture into their ‘news’. And when ginger cricketer Andrew McDonald was called up for the summer’s Ashes series ahead of Andrew Symonds, it prompted a wise-crack from Bob Willis, who said, as reported by the Sun:
“Andrew McDonald is more like Ronald McDonald as far as I’m concerned.”
We could dissect that quote, probably. We could ask “more like Ronald McDonald than what?”. Than a cricketer? Than Andrew McDonald? It doesn’t really make any sense, but it made a point - he looks a bit funny, and Bob Willis doesn’t much rate him as a cricketer given the four Tests he’s played. The one-liner, though, might have been inexplicable were it not for the picture. You can find it here, but it looks a bit like this:
mixed with this: 
Brilliant. You get the picture.
But why leave it there? There was an opportunity to rehash it when Andrew McDonald spoke to reporters during Australia’s preparations for the Twenty20 World Cup, and the Sun didn’t miss the moment to do a fresh mock-up, which you can see here.
Yesterday’s story is even more of a reach, given that there is some real cricket to report on on the eve of the tournament, but it’s not stopped the Sun from turning a quote which we think displays a decent sense of humour and is a very good attempt to play down some disparaging Willis comments into something else altogether. McDonald says:
He replied: “Pretty original, Bob - over six foot tall, red hair and last name McDonald. Yeah, I’ve never heard it before.”
No wonder the Sun led with the headline:
Andrew McDonald: I do look like Ronald
Never let the details get in the way of a good peripheral story. And to be fair, Ali Martin, who pens this piece, doesn’t, giving us only the following by way of relevant information about the player Andrew McDonald might be when the Tests begin:
May 20th: But the stats so far don’t stack up, with the flame-haired Victorian averaging just 21 runs with the bat from his four Tests. With the ball, McDonald’s medium-pacers have taken just nine wickets, with a paltry 111 scalps in 50 first-class games overall.
June 3rd: McDonald has just four Test caps to date, snaring four wickets with his dibbly-dobbly medium pace and scoring one half-century with the bat.
You’ll notice that his records have changed in those two weeks - not to worry, Ali Martin was right the first time and McDonald has nine Test wickets at 33, while his paltry 111 scalps have in fact been achieved at an average of under 30 and a strike rate of 61 balls. He may not be quick, but anyone who’s watched him will know that his wicket-to-wicket bowling style, though not extremely penetrative, was certainly economical and restrictive, and on a pitch offering some movement and swing he’d be someone to take seriously. With the bat, there has not been a great deal to celebrate, but his innings of 68 showed some promise, and should he play he is only liable to bat at 7 or 8.
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A final thought on the mock-ups, what’s not to love about this line in the story?
And having seen SunSport’s mocked-up picture, the flame-haired Victorian was less than impressed.
Firstly, using the term flame-haired Victorian twice in two Andrew McDonald stories - lazy. Secondly, we bet that he was purely frustrated with Bob Willis for saying it, and not at all with the Sun for knocking together a mock-up. Definitely.
