Tony Abbott: What he said, really meant and definitely didn’t

Tony Abbott says cricket is about ‘drinks’.

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What he said:

“The safest place to put your beer when I was playing was behind the stumps, particularly when I was bowling.”

Australian premier Tony Abbott confesses that the only reason he took up cricket at Oxford was for the availability of drinks at odd times.

He said:

“The only way to get a drink in England in those days during the middle of the day was to be playing sport because the pavilion bars could be open when the pubs had to shut. So the truth, Jim, is I was probably a drinker first and a cricketer second. The safest place to put your beer when I was playing was behind the stumps, particularly when I was bowling.”

Referring to former Prime Minister John Howard’s disastrous bowling sting during an official visit to Pakistan in 2005, Abbot said:

“It wasn’t the most elegant delivery, but nevertheless it was poetry in motion compared to my bowling.”

What he really meant:

“John Howard, you are in good company—beer company.”

What he definitely didn’t:

“I’m Australian and I’m for beer.”