Top most embarrassing cricketers

Poor Mitchell Johnson. First the Aussie quick bowler bowls like a drain against every team in England - including the national side, who have so far this Ashes series smashed 331 runs off him - is pillared by press both back home and in Britain, and THEN his mother steps in to add her sixpence.

In the Australian media she has been blamed for distracting him after complaining of having him 'stolen' from her by his fiancée. She has now produced a gushing apology that concluded: "Never forget I love you, mate."

Sportsmen and their mothers do not always go hand in hand, and below are ten more examples when mums make their super-star kids cringe, just as they did at the school gates when they licked their hanky and wiped that grubby mark off their cheek. Cue wincing and blushing.

1. Angela Morrison

The mother of Republic of Ireland international striker Clinton Morrison, Angela, similarly felt the need to protect her little baby back in December 2002.

The then-23-year-old was turning out for Birmingham City and tangled with QPR defender Rufus Brevett at Loftus Road.

After the tempestuous game, which Brum won 1-0, Angela took exception to the treatment Brevett had given her boy and she confronted him in the players’ lounge.

Brevett said to Angela: "Your son's got a big mouth."

To which she began to swing her handbag and snarled: "I know. He gets it from me."

Stewards had to rush to the scene to stop trouble escalating.

2. Brigitte Warne

In February 2003 Australian leg-spinning great Shane Warne was suspended from cricket by the Australian Cricket Board after he was deemed to be using performance-enhancing drugs. In actual fact Warne had been taking advice from his mother on how to lose a stone or two, the vain peroxide tweaker.

Brigitte handed him a diuretic pill so he could shrink his 36” waste. Warney forgot to tell the team doctor, Trefor Jones, or the physio, Errol Alcott – perhaps because he was worried his team-mates would rib him for using drugs that are used by jockeys and excessive dieters. Or perhaps it was because diuretics are used to mask other performance-enhancing drugs …

Chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency, Dick Pound, was unimpressed with Warne's explanation that his mum had given him the banned tablet. "Poisoned by his mother?” Pound chuckled. “It is good, very good. It ranks up there with the one 'I got it from the toilet seat'.”

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11:34 AM

England 'preying on' Johnson - Pietersen

Mitchell Johnson, the Australian allrounder, came into the Ashes as his team's leading bowler but he has struggled for accuracy, and Kevin Pietersen said England were "preying on" the fast bowler's problems.

"We certainly know that he's struggling," Pietersen told Sky Sports News. "The good thing we're doing at the moment in this England team is that we're preying well on guys that aren't playing well. I think Mitchell Johnson is a guy that the guys are preying on. But he is a fantastic bowler and he might come back really strong at Edgbaston. It's going to be an important thing to get on top of him and get on top of this Australian side."

Johnson took eight wickets at 41 apiece in the first two Tests but was unable to bowl a consistent line and length and failed to build any pressure on the batsmen. Pietersen, however, will not be around to try and dominate Johnson at Edgbaston after undergoing surgery for an Achilles injury, but he was confident Ian Bell, his replacement, would come good.

"Belly [Bell] had a good time of it, then he had a bit of a bad time of it. He has obviously been left out, unfortunately for him, but I think he is a world class player and being left out for so long, that is hard on Belly," Pietersen said. "It will toughen Belly up and he will use this opportunity well. So I don't see Belly struggling at all in the next three Test matches. I hope he doesn't, I hope he comes in and does really, really well."

Bell's last Test for England was the calamitous innings defeat at Sabina Park in February, a result which lost England the series in the Caribbean. Though Bell averages 40 in Tests (3004 runs in 46 matches), his run in the top-order was unconvincing, and he has also struggled against the Australians, against whom he averages only 25 in ten Tests. Pietersen, though, was confident Bell would remedy those figures.

Though England lead 1-0 after two Tests, Australia were confident of winning, especially after the injury to Pietersen. "We still have three whole Tests to play. And that is plenty of time for us to turn this series on its head, especially as the loss of Kevin Pietersen is going to hurt England badly," Ricky Ponting wrote in the Sunday Telegraph. "We all know what an influence Kevin is around their team.

"I said at the start of the series that he would be their go-to man, and the guy who would relish playing against Australia the most. He brings the X-factor to their batting. And a middle order without him in it definitely will not be the same."

Pietersen, meanwhile, will be at Edgbaston for the third Test, which begins on Thursday, supporting his team-mates from the sidelines. "Yeah, I am finding it very difficult at the moment, having to know that I will be at Edgbaston on Thursday. I am going to go and watch the boys and support the boys because I think that is important.

"To know that I can't be playing will kill me inside but there is nothing I can do. When I know that I can't support the team and play the way I can play - I can't run - there is nothing I can do about it. I just have to bite the bullet."

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11:50 AM

England 'preying on' Johnson - Pietersen

Mitchell Johnson, the Australian allrounder, came into the Ashes as his team's leading bowler but he has struggled for accuracy, and Kevin Pietersen said England were "preying on" the fast bowler's problems.

"We certainly know that he's struggling," Pietersen told Sky Sports News. "The good thing we're doing at the moment in this England team is that we're preying well on guys that aren't playing well. I think Mitchell Johnson is a guy that the guys are preying on. But he is a fantastic bowler and he might come back really strong at Edgbaston. It's going to be an important thing to get on top of him and get on top of this Australian side."

Johnson took eight wickets at 41 apiece in the first two Tests but was unable to bowl a consistent line and length and failed to build any pressure on the batsmen. Pietersen, however, will not be around to try and dominate Johnson at Edgbaston after undergoing surgery for an Achilles injury, but he was confident Ian Bell, his replacement, would come good.

"Belly [Bell] had a good time of it, then he had a bit of a bad time of it. He has obviously been left out, unfortunately for him, but I think he is a world class player and being left out for so long, that is hard on Belly," Pietersen said. "It will toughen Belly up and he will use this opportunity well. So I don't see Belly struggling at all in the next three Test matches. I hope he doesn't, I hope he comes in and does really, really well."

Bell's last Test for England was the calamitous innings defeat at Sabina Park in February, a result which lost England the series in the Caribbean. Though Bell averages 40 in Tests (3004 runs in 46 matches), his run in the top-order was unconvincing, and he has also struggled against the Australians, against whom he averages only 25 in ten Tests. Pietersen, though, was confident Bell would remedy those figures.

Though England lead 1-0 after two Tests, Australia were confident of winning, especially after the injury to Pietersen. "We still have three whole Tests to play. And that is plenty of time for us to turn this series on its head, especially as the loss of Kevin Pietersen is going to hurt England badly," Ricky Ponting wrote in the Sunday Telegraph. "We all know what an influence Kevin is around their team.

"I said at the start of the series that he would be their go-to man, and the guy who would relish playing against Australia the most. He brings the X-factor to their batting. And a middle order without him in it definitely will not be the same."

Pietersen, meanwhile, will be at Edgbaston for the third Test, which begins on Thursday, supporting his team-mates from the sidelines. "Yeah, I am finding it very difficult at the moment, having to know that I will be at Edgbaston on Thursday. I am going to go and watch the boys and support the boys because I think that is important.

"To know that I can't be playing will kill me inside but there is nothing I can do. When I know that I can't support the team and play the way I can play - I can't run - there is nothing I can do about it. I just have to bite the bullet."

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11:50 AM