How did a straight, married, low-key cricketer make it nude onto the cover of a gay magazine? Hemal Ashar gets mag editor Todd Matthew to tell

How did a straight, married, low-key cricketer make it nude onto the cover of a gay magazine? Hemal Ashar gets mag editor Todd Matthew to tell

England pace bowler James Anderson hopes to shed cricket's image of being a game of crusty old fogeys, along with his clothes. The cricketer recently posed nude for UK's leading gay magazine Attitude. What has caused some surprise besides Anderson's decision to reveal all for the game he loves, is the magazine's choice of icon itself. It's confounding because Anderson is not flamboyant, not a colourful character as sportswriters call controversial sportsmen, and rather low-key. Not a headline-grabbing, bad boy at all, to put it succinctly.

James Anderson wants cricket and the men associated with it to
move with the times, and if it means coming out of the closet, so be it

One could have understood if Attitude had chosen former England player David Gower. After all, Gower was punished by the disapproving English cricket establishment for flying over a game in a Tiger Moth plane once. Or, the beefy Ian Botham, who is reported to have broken a bed with a barmaid or Kevin Pietersen who elicits headlines from delighted sub-editors like: KP is an MCP with his comments.

"Well, he is a professional sportsman, he is relaxed and attractive, in fact, he looks like a supermodel," said Attitude editor Todd Matthew over the phone from London. Anderson (28), who is straight, married and has a child, was, reports say, convinced by his wife to do the photo shoot, incidentally shot by Indian origin, London-based fashion photographer Ram Shergill. Todd laughs as he says, "His wife was very enthusiastic about him posing for the magazine. I don't think Anderson needed much convincing to do the shoot, he needed more convincing to shed his clothes, I think."

The magazine has previously featured the likes of the uber-cool David Beckham on the cover. Matthew says, "It does help to have sportspeople featured in the magazine. It sends out messages like this is 'cool'. A lot of them look at it not just as a gay magazine but as a fashion magazine too, so it reinforces their cool status."
Matthew agrees that there was a time when sportspersons did not want to be associated with gay issues ufffd sportsmen were the ultimate in butch machismo and to admit you were sympathetic to the gay cause or even come out yourself, was committing professional hara kiri. The endorsements would slip away faster than a ball streaking across a quick outfield for a four.

Tennis icon Martina Navratilova has stated publicly that she paid a price for coming out as a lesbian, with several sponsors pulling out once she came out as gay. In her book, Being Myself, Martina rued that she had come out, or been 'outed' by a journalist who she had confided in about her sexuality. The tennis star actually wrote that she had been naive to talk to a journalist about a private matter. The journalist was under pressure to write the story and he outed her in print. Now, though, years after that day, Navratilova is a gay sports icon looked up to for her courage in coming out rather than ridiculed.

"That's not surprising any longer," says Todd, who thinks, "There's been a definite shift in the way we view gay sportspersons now. Celebrities are no longer afraid or hesitant to be featured in these magazines, what they do when they agree to pose for the magazine, is start a debate about the subject." Then Todd thinks maybe he is being too analytical, and adds, "Maybe, they just think it is a good magazine and want to be in it. Yet, when a big, straight star does something like James Anderson has done and shows that he is happy to be associated with the gay cause, it sort of normalises this gay thing a little more."

Todd says one goal that Anderson had was to change the image of cricket; it's stuffy, old-fashioned, old men in mothballs image and, "make it a game for a younger generation, a lot sexier than people think it is." Anderson has been quoted in news reports as saying, "There's a perception of lots of committees and old men being quite prim and proper, but I think the game is moving with the times. If there are any gay cricketers they should feel confident enough to come out because I don't think there is any homophobia in cricket. I think I probably will get some stick for it but I'm more than prepared for that. I'm quite happy to take it. If they want to give me some stick, let them give me their best shot," he added.

Things seemed to have come full circle, a top class swimmer actually 'lost' endorsements recently when she referred to homosexuals as faggots (see box) on Twitter. It is a different time from the days when jocks ran many sweaty miles from associating with gay sexuality. Some sticks and stones may break Anderson's bones, but calling him gay names won't hurt him.

Rice not so nice
Australian swimmer Olympian Stephanie Rice lost friends and endorsements after she tweeted: 'Suck on that faggots. Probs the best game I've ever seen!! Well done boys' after Australia won a rugby encounter against South Africa recently.u00a0

Outrage followed and former rugby league star Ian Roberts labelled Rice, "a complete idiot" and called for sponsors to dump her. Luxury car maker Jaguar did exactly that recently, cancelling her sponsorship and demanding she return her free car. Rice was devastated at the reaction and later apologised for the tweet, insisting that she was not homophobic and had a lot of gay friends.u00a0

Gold medal winning diver, the openly gay Matthew Mitcham leapt to the defence of Rice, claiming his Olympic teammate and good friend is not homophobic. Mitcham wrote that the furore surrounding Rice's comments is "a wake up call" to parts of society "that they can easily offend without meaning to, eg. that's so gay".
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