Pretty-Tough XI: The pretty boy cricketers who left a mark with their tenacity

Pretty and tough. Our minds tell us that the two words are mutually exclusive, but there are plenty of cricketers who fit both definitions. See ROBERT CRADDOCK’S Pretty-Tough XI here.

FILE: Alastair Cook Steps Down As England Captain NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND - AUGUST 08: England captain Alastair Cook celebrates after winning the 4th Investec Ashes Test match between England and Australia at Trent Bridge on August 8, 2015 in Nottingham, United Kingdom. (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images)

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FOR as long as sport has been played there have been two words that rarely existed in the same sentence … “pretty’’ and “tough.’’

Our minds tell us they are mutually exclusive. That prettiness means softness. That toughness means a square jaw, a gravelly voice, a ruthless stare and we’ll throw in a blue singlet for good measure.

Which is why Justin Langer got us thinking this week when he called Tim Paine the toughest pretty boy he had seen.

Prettiness and toughness could go together. In fact there are others who have broken the mould and to honour that rarely spoken about fraternity we introduce our Pretty-Tough XI.

A drum roll please for …

Alastair Cook had charm and cement in equal measure.

Alastair Cook: Was a cherub-faced school choirboy who sang for the Queen as a youngster and never lost his natural sweetness through all the trials and ruthless scrutiny he faced as an England captain under siege. Had charm and cement in equal measure.

Kumar Sangakkara unleashes on the Aussies in Hobart in 2007.

Kumar Sangakkara: The Sri Lankan batsman-keeper was a qualified lawyer and clever sledger with a grin that would have worked well on a toothpaste commercial. But when he got in and set he was one of the hardest batsmen in the world to shift.

EDavid Gower with acting English captain at Adelaide Oval in 1990.

David Gower: His boyish face, cheeky grin, curly hair, whimsical sense of humour and silky batting skills made the former English captain a glamour boy of his generation. All of his gifts made it look as if he was simply floating along like a batting butterfly. But you don’t play 117 Tests without inner steel.

Mark Waugh (right) with brothers Steve, Danny and Dean in 1989

Mark Waugh: He used to loathe it when people would say “you’re the pretty one and (twin brother) Steve’s the tough one’’ but that is the price you pay for having one of the finest mullets of the 1980s. Toughness can be different things ... a nerveless debut Test century against England, a pressure catch or scoring a century on a green-top to beat South Africa. Waugh did all of these.

Michael Clarke tries to push through the pain barrier during the Adelaide Oval Test in 2014. Picture: Simon Cross

Michael Clarke: A polarizing figure but his effort to play 115 Tests with a back injury that would have ended plenty of careers was a testament to his extraordinary commitment and his ability to play through the pain barrier.

Imran Khan teaches Pakistani children the basics of cricket in 1983.

Imran Khan: The toughest pretty boy in the history of the game. The Pakistan captain shamelessly flaunted his sexuality as a player and enjoyed being featured on giant provocative World Series billboards which said Big Boys Play At Night. Just when everyone thought he would retire to soft life of commentary and cocktails he set upon a brutal, life-threatening journey when he started his own political party in Pakistan. He is now Pakistan Prime Minister and, in perhaps a more significant honour, a worthy captain of our XI.

Tim Paine gets his finger checked out during the first Test against India in Adelaide.

Tim Paine: Apart from Mark Waugh, he is the only cricketer who could wear a pair of white jeans into a pig pen and not get them dirty. To captain Australia after seven finger operations is a credit to his bullet-proof self-esteem.

Shane Warne, pictured with Simon O’Donnell and Michael Slater, during his pretty phase in the mid-90s.

Shane Warne: Not your classical pretty boy but if you go back and look at some old photos you’ll get it. Deceptively tough. When surgeons opened his shoulder in the late 1990s they could not believe he had even been carrying a cricket ball never mind bowling one. Warne’s mother was born in Germany and there are parts of Warne’s fibre which typify the courage of that nation’s iron-willed sportsmen.

Brett Lee is welcomed after arriving at Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 2004.

Brett Lee: After Imran the second man chosen. Under-rated tough nut who produced the extraordinary feat of bowling between 140-150kph for almost two decades as arms, knees, back discs and ankles – pretty much everything – went pop along the way. On a soon to be shown episode of Cricket Legends Lee said if you did a graph shading areas in which he was injured his entire body would be covered. So handsome that once in India when he asked a fan for a lift for himself and his manager back to the hotel she fainted.

Pat Cummins stares down Lokesh Rahul during the first Test in Adelaide.

Pat Cummins: Quietly becoming the poster boy of what Australian cricket wants to be. A post cricket television career beckons for the good-looking quick but there’s substance with the style. He is as willing as anyone to tough it out in the Indian subcontinent when the decks are brutally flat and the humidity is so thick you could drink it.

Shoaib Akhtar arrives at the Gabba for the Australia v Pakistan ODI in 2000.

Shoaib Akhtar: The Pakistan fast bowler so enjoyed his profile he once said to an Australian journalist “I have a wonderful story for you … me.’’ But for all of his foibles and flightiness the best of him was outstanding despite bowling off one of the game’s longest run-ups in sauna bath conditions.

Stephen Fleming at the SCG in Sydney during tour match.

Coach: Stephen Fleming: The photo on the front of his autobiography of Fleming in a black bow tie came up so well he could have been auditioning to be the new James Bond. But underneath it all he was an unpretentious, hard-nosed New Zealand captain raised by a single mum who grew from a sky kid to fine leader.

Zimbabwe cricket team manager Vince Hogg talks with Australian team manager Steve Bernard in 2004.

Manager: Steve Bernard: Did countless highly stressful tours of the Indian subcontinent yet still finished looking 10 years younger than he was. There is a theory that listening to ACDC music beyond his 60th birthday kept him young.

Physiotherapist Errol Alcott gives Ricky Ponting a check over in Sri Lanka in 1996.

Physiotherapist: Errol Alcott: “Hooter’’ was a great physio with an even greater mop of hair. Players used to tell stories at sportsman’s nights that when he ran on to the field to treat a player in a day-night game he occasionally became so transfixed by the “beautiful sight’’ of the shadow of his hair bouncing in the breeze he ran in the wrong direction. It was all made up – but the punters loved it.

Originally published as Pretty-Tough XI: The pretty boy cricketers who left a mark with their tenacity