eyelash growth

MOVEMBER . . . it's all about being the man of the mo-ment.

And AWAAT would like to nominate emergency Wallabies hooker and Stephen Moore’s hair-apparent, Tatafu Polota-Nau, as the early standard barers for Australian masculinity.

(Where he’ll be in two weeks Vidal Sassoon and, to a lesser extent Toni & Guy, only know.)

At the other end of the spectrum and in a bid to prove he can actually grow a mo, Peter Siddle is representing Australia’s cricketers in the charity fundraiser.

Although the evidence 13 days in, despite Siddle taking "time out during his Sheffield Shield commitments to sculpt his mo", doesn’t seem to have conclusively dispelled that rumour.

The Australian moustache movement has grown so impressively across the face of the globe that this year 150 players from 14 teams in the North American NHL have signed up for the hirsute pursuit.

Anaheim Ducks tough guy George Parros even had his renowned and intimidating mo removed so he could then regrow it – and it’s fair to say he’s doing a tad better than our boy Siddle.

Mountain man

AS if England cricket coach Andy Flower didn’t have a big enough mountain to climb in trying to reverse a 5-0 scoreline from the Poms’ last charge Down under . . . he went and climbed an actual mountain.

Hitting the Adelaide Hills (doesn’t sound too challenging) Flower, under the watchful eye of wicketkeeping coach turned climber Bruce French – who perhaps had an eye on the top job – spent their free day in the Morialta Conservation Park.

After bowler James Anderson managed to crack a rib during a short sparring session in a pre-Ashes camp in Bavaria, Bruce told AWAAT’s lady in the crampons "the players are on the golf course".

That’s a doubly good thing following Kevin Pietersen’s dismay at wives and kiddies being banned until after the second Test, as the park is advertised as a "perfect place for pushing prams".

In more great news for cricket enthusiasts, scientists this week announced that the tuberous bushcricket has the biggest testicles – as a percentage of body weight – in the world.

The impressive cojones are the equivalent of a 91kg man having crown jewels tipping the scale at 13kg. But be warned, if anyone has the urge this summer to challenge the katydids’s impressive numbers in front of a stadium of onlookers in South Australia they could face a fine of $5000 instead of the usual $200.

In introducing the new legislation, which will include Adelaide Oval, state Sports Minister Michael Wright was happy to blame our colourful wild west.

"An incident in Western Australia last year has highlighted the need to increase fines before the forthcoming Ashes Test," Wright told AWAAT’s man wearing nothing but a smile.

(During a one-day international match at the WACA last summer, Pakistan fieldsman Khalid Latif was tackled to the ground by a fully clothed plonker who charged on to the ground.)

Power to the games

IF the Chinese PR stunt that was the Beijing Olympics wasn’t evidence enough that absolute power gets the job done, the Asian Games, which started last night in Guangzhou, have served up even more proof.

On a sizeable list of imposing decrees by games organisers, people living within a 1km radius of the venue for the opening ceremony were ordered to vacate their homes for the event, held on an island in the Pearl River.

They were also told to leave their lights on as the television images looked better with an illuminated cityscape.

The powers that be have spent more than $US2 billion on the biggest Asian Games to date, which will feature more than 10,000 athletes in 42 sports – AWAAT’s favourite is, of course kabbadi – and everybody WILL have a good time.

(In a interesting sidelight for cricket enthusiasts – and stubbornly padding away any suspicions that having invested in a 12,000-seat sport specific stadium the regime would have it any other way – games organisers announced this week that all tickets for the women’s competition were sold out within days of going on sale. "We hope to spread cricket all over Asia," Husain Al Musallam, director-general and technical director of the Olympic Council of Asia said.)

AWAATING around the world in 80 words:

► a YOUNG lad by the name of Kumar Sarna smashes 228 off just 65 balls in a Twenty20 match for Wonga Park against Croydon North in the Ringwood and District Cricket Association comp in suburban Melbourne. Collingwood star Dale Thomas was down the other end for most of the innings as Sarna helped himself to 22 sixes and 17 fours.

► FORMER England striker turned football pundit John Barnes is informed live on air at half-time in a game between his old club Liverpool and Chelsea he has become a father for the seventh time. He stays for the second half before dashing to hospital.

► US murder suspect Earl Barranco – caught on video in a confrontation with a man who ended up shot twice in the head and three times in the back – after evading police for weeks is found and arrested at the home season opener for the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats when two women in the crowd spot him on the JumboTron camera and call the police.

► FORMER Italy star, and football’s most famous Buddhist, Roberto Baggio, is awarded the Peace Summit Award by the world’s Nobel Peace Prize laureates for his longtime humanitarian efforts, including pressing for the freedom of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s detained pro-democracy leader, funding hospitals and raising money to help victims of the Haiti earthquake.

► AN international competition finds the best use for vuvezelas now the World Cup is over – and they’ve been banned from every sporting venue around the globe – is to cut them up and use them as earrings. a panel of South African judges examined 150 suggestions, which included toilet-paper holders, cocktail shakers and fire-extinguisher hoses.

kings@theaustralian.com.au

<a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/sport/just-a-mo-but-all-for-charity/story-e6frg7t6-1225952902837tag:news.google.com,2005:cluster=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/sport/just-a-mo-but-all-for-charity/story-e6frg7t6-1225952902837Fri, 12 Nov 2010 13:06:12 GMT 00:00″>Just a mo, but all for charity