Sportsmen are important role models and trendsetters. This is a social reality and it is beside the point whether sportsmen willingly choose these roles. As such it is almost obligatory for chaps to ridicule Shane Warne, Doug Bollinger, Graham Gooch and all the other sporty bozos who decide to wear a rug lest the rug become some sort of status symbol and the nude nut fall out of fashion.

I would hate to see chaps trapped on the same oppressive, not to mention expensive, fashion treadmill that bedevils womenfolk.

ps. I sport a nude nut by choice every summer as a matter of thermal comfort

But I think we should criticise a culture so obsessed by body image that people go under the knife because of it. “Revealed preference’ is mostly rubbish – it doesn’t include what options aren’t available or the powerful forces that influence decisions. We’re already at the stage where people going to job interviews know that to ‘compete’ they might need some botox, hair dye, teeth whitening … probably all you can afford! It’s all a ridiculous kind of dishonesty.

It’s not OK that for so many women, and some men, altering how they look is their main hobby. Probably became their main hobby as a result of a billion dollar industry that tells them that to be attractive and successful they have to look perfect. The risks of surgery, steroids and they like is less well known.