So Matt Prior doesn't like the way he is portrayed. ""When I've read the character assassinations, I've phoned my family and asked, 'Is this really me?'" squeaked the Sussex keeper, who is out of favour with England at the moment.

He isn't the first and definitely won't be the last to be, apparently, misunderstood.

IAN HEALY: Former Aussie keeper and Channel Nine commentator Ian Healy said he was the victim of a misunderstanding when viewers complained that he mocked breast cancer research last week.

Not known for his shy and retiring nature on the pitch, "Heals" was caught on camera miming a violin when Andrew Symonds was talking about fund-raising during a break in the cricket.

Soon afterwards, emails circulated around Sydney that Healy had resigned, a rumour that was ultimately untrue.

Healy claimed he was having a dig at Symonds, who along with Matthew Hayden, has been using pink bat handles this summer in a deal with their sponsor to raise money and promote awareness.

"I think people perceived that I was mocking breast cancer research, but I was mocking Andrew, who was promoting a scheme he has had going all summer with [bat-maker] Gray-Nicholls," he told smh.com.au.

INZAMAM UL-HAQ: Former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq attacked an official report that described him as a "dictator" and blamed him for the team's disastrous showing at the 2007 World Cup.

The investigation was undertaken by the Performance Evaluation Committee (PEC) of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB. It concluded that Inzamam's attitude was "haughty and that of a dictator" and said he should have been removed as captain before the World Cup.

"I was blamed for being very lenient during my whole captaincy career and now I have turned into a dictator," Inzamam said. "That could only be accepted if players had complained that I acted like one."

"This is nothing new in Pakistan cricket. When the team loses, all the blame is put on others", he said wearily.

He said the presence of Salim Altaf and Salahuddin Ahmed, both paid employees of the PCB, on the report committee undermined its conclusions.

As if to prove Inzamam's point, new skipper Shoaib Malik has got nothing but flak after losing two Test series in a row, with even his own team mates claiming he is too...... soft.

SREESANTH: Another of life's shrinking violets (not), Sreesanth said he did not intend the beamer that almost decapitated Kevin Pietersen at Trent Bridge last summer.

"Nothing is more dear to me than the game itself and I swear by this game that I was attempting a yorker but my wrist position went horribly wrong and it went as a beamer."

Despite his protestations to the contrary, the fast bowler's apparent disrespect of the opposition has irked Australia, England and a few respected commentators too.

"An apology doesn't necessarily mean it is sincere", suggested Mike Atherton. "With match referees on the prowl, any bowler with an ounce of survival instinct is bound to apologise, deliberately bowled or not."

SHOAIB AKHTAR: Calling Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar a "jolly" person, former captain Zaheer Abbas suggested the bowler has been misunderstood, and should be handled with care.

Zaheer said he never found Shoaib any more problematic than his other team-mates during his stint as team manager on the 2006 tour of England.

"During my time as (Pakistan team) manager, Shoaib came across as a jolly, friendly guy, which is why it is a bit hard for me to comprehend the sort of controversies he has generated and still generates," Zaheer said..

"But I believe you have to teach players to be disciplined from a young age, and it is difficult to change a person when he is in the twilight years of his career."

Zaheer said Pakistan cricket's history is full of players with "poor disciplinary records" although it is unknown how many of those hit team mates with bats.

MUNAF PATEL: When Munaf Patel was left out of India's World Twenty20 team and dropped from the one-day squad, he portrayed himself as a sensitive soul disturbed by wrongful accusations.

Munaf said that he was reticent by nature and that this shouldn't be read as a lack of ambition. "What is this intensity? Talk to me, try to understand me ... The problem with me is that I speak very less. I speak only when I want to, and when I feel the need to. But what I say is straight from the heart. That's how I grew up in my village. Let somebody tell me to my face that my attitude is not right."

Now why didn't David Gower say that when he hooked to long leg in the last over before lunch at Adelaide in 1991? Probably because if looks could have killed, Graham Gooch would have.

SOURAV GANGULY: "I saw that zeal among the players when the Indians were led by the Prince of Kolkata", notes Geoff Boycott in the foreword to the book Sourav Ganguly - the Maharajah of Cricket.

"He's a natural leader of men who led by instinct", adds the former England player. Would this be the same player accused by Andrew Flintoff of acting like Royalty? The man who refused to carry drinks on his first tour of Australia or got Kapil Dev to carry his kit bag?

Of course, the media, including us, have always overplayed more negative aspects of Ganguly's stubborn character, which is generally dignified despite difficult times on and off the pitch.

Like Boycott, he remains admired but not universally loved.

DOUGLAS JARDINE: He may have been the instigator of the most controversial and intimidating bowling tactics ever devised, but the Bodyline series of 1932/33 did not tell the whole truth about the sort of man Jardine was.

He was shy and dedicated to his family and had a terrific sense of humour among company. Unfortunately, his legacy is not a good one. He was described as "a man of character who, like all men of character, was not liked by everybody. He did what he set out to do, as when his side won The Ashes in Australia in 1932-33, even if the method he adopted did not meet with general approval."