This is something that we won’t see over in England, but last year when I was in Australia I was caught up a bit in the marketing hype, enough so that I want to post about it!

Victoria Bitter, or VB as it is more affectionately known “down under”, is an Australian lager and the company behind them have supported cricket for quite a while. The past few years they have released plastic dolls or manikins, such as the one shown to the right, which are mine! The first year was just David Boon on his own, and last year for the ashes they had Boony and Beefy (Ian Botham obviously!). Wow, so nothing special you say… well how about the fact that they talk to each other! Put these little bad boys near the tele, and when you settle down to watch Australia take on some second rate outfit from another country, they start chirping up! Its witchcraft, I tell ye! However, when I brought them back to this country they had to be moved downstairs as they were talking as I was trying to sleep!

Anyway, onto the point – this year the ambassador for VB is none other than Warney. They have changed the format slightly, so its just Shane this year, and he’s sat down in his armchair. If you’re down under you can get him if you buy a nice big pack of VB (lovely stuff, by the way – but bloody difficult to get in England!), or from the 1 st December you can get him from the online shop at www.vbwarnie.com.au Or maybe you want to buy an inflatable chair, t-shirt or hat! Also on that site there are a couple of addictive little games, desktop downloads etc. Never say I can be taken in by marketing spiel again!!

As a sidenote I think this would work ok in England, but the brands which support cricket (Marston’s), are a little more reserved and I don’t see them attempting this. But imagine how many people would get one of these with Freddie or KP on… My commission fee can be sent to me at….!