This post is just PANTS

Cricketwithballs is lucky to have cricket blogging's foremost expert on fashion as its fashion correspondent, and today I bring you two (two!) cricket fashion stories, and no I'm not talking about that WAG shop in Liverpool.

[b]KIWI CORBLIMEY TROUSERS
[/b]
First, New Zealand have new special trousers. I know, I know, any trouser that has been in direct contact with the likes of Vettori, Oram etc is special by default. The new trousers are even more special than that though (if you can imagine such a thing) as they purport to allow bowlers to put extra shine on the ball.

There's also talk of a "micro-slide" version for fielders, and (and I quote from Cricinfo here) "the IonX BaseLayer performance underwear which is claimed to improve performance by 2.7%".

The reports do not say exactly what kind of performance UNDERWEAR is meant to enhance (I mean, I have experience of certain underwear enhancing certain people's performance, but that's not relevant here). Neither is it clear how an improvement of 2.7% could possibly have been empirically measured.

Apparently they also tried putting a rough patch on the bowler trousers, but the designer had reservations because "I'm a member of MCC, and I didn't want to lose my membership for going against the spirit of cricket". Now I'm sure he's delightful, but I love how he just had to get in, somewhere, the fact that he is a member of MCC.

[b]BRETT'S FANCY PANTS
[/b]
Brett Lee has an underwear and pyjama range coming out. The linked article (which, incidentally, is determined not to let the story get in the way of cricket puns) pretty much says it all.

We get quite a few googlehits from people looking for cricketer-underwear related stories, some of whom aren't even looking for Shane Watson, so never let it be said that we don't give our public what they ask for.

Future cricketwithballs fashion stories may or may not cover: Robin Uthappa's necklaces, Stuart Broad's highlights and Chris Gayle's sunglasses.www.cricketwithballs.com

Now with new proper english lady blogger.