Crimes of fashion

Cameroon's footballers are determined to defend their African Nations Cup crown in style.

But fashion critics remain divided on whether the Indomitable Lions look the part in Mali after swapping their traditional kit for figure-hugging green vests.

Shirt designers Puma say the new sleeveless shirt is designed to stop players getting hot under the collar.

But suspicion remains that the basketball-style tops are a just another ploy to make Cameroon's stars look cool even when they are wilting in the sub-Saharan sun.

Agassi completed his look with a first-class mullet

Footballers have traditionally been quick to embrace the glitzy fashion gimmicks thrown their way by sponsors.

The Italian team reached the final of Euro 2000 wearing slinky lycra shirts which would have looked more at home on a Bondi Beach surf dude.

Mexico's Jorge Campos even designed his own range of garish goalkeepers' outfits - presumably to take a striker's eye off the ball as he prepared to pull the trigger.

But fashion follies have hit other sports too.

Golfer Jesper Parnevik is renowned for wearing caps with bizarre upturned peaks.

British squash star Nicky Botwright wanted to go on court in a thong until the game's ruling body decided to intervene in the interests of taste.

Tommy Haas looks like a body builder with his muscle man-style, short-sleeved shirt at the Australian Open tennis.

Parnevik's career has seen more peaks than troughs

And Andre Agassi has mercifully banished the days when he used to sport the sort of tops and matching headbands which clearly inspired the creations of Mr Campos.

Other sportsmen are more reluctant clothes horses.

Sri Lanka's cricketers claimed they lost their Champions Trophy final against Pakistan two years ago because their kit was too tight.

"We had to add extensions to the trousers as they were dangerously too short," moaned captain Sanath Jayasuriya.

"The t-shirts were also too tight and they looked more like the tight-fitting women's blouses worn with sarees."