By Brendan John Worrell (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-03-07 10:22

This week the world's media published photos of a naked man running across a cricket match between Australia and India in the Australian city of Brisbane. As the nude runner, referred to as a "streaker", made his way to the center of the ground he was unceremoniously knocked down by one of the Australian sportsmen on the field.

The 26-year-old streaker was then picked up by the police and later pleaded guilty to two charges in a Magistrates Court. The first with 'interfering with persons engaged in sport' and the second charge 'willful exposure'. He was fined AUD$1,500 and later set free.

For the spectators it was probably a welcome relief in what is at times a rather tedious game. For the sportsman who knocked the streaker to the ground he faces a possible match suspension and monetary fine. For the world of streakers, it was just another feather in their cap.

According to Australian media it wasn't the first naked run the young man had performed and for sporting officials around the world streakers' antics are a headache with even the best security vulnerable to their exhibitionism.

Streakers today are becoming increasingly organized with many having their own websites, fan clubs and sponsors.

One of the world's most daring is an English thrill seeker by the name of Mark Roberts. Logging onto his website at http://www.thestreaker.org/uk one sees he has trespassed on some of the world's most prestigious sporting events.

At the Wimbledon Men's tennis Final in 2002 he dashed onto center court showing the world his white rear. Two years later his unsightly butt crossed the Atlantic holding up the US Superbowl in Houston.

Roberts has even dashed alongside horses in front of the Queen at Royal Ascot Horse Race Course in 2003, and risked injury running that same year with the Bulls at Spain's legendary Pamplona. And we can't forget his naked appearance at a UEFA Cup Football Final, or at Golf's Ryder Cup in Ireland 2006. He's even streaked at Snooker Championships.

Actually the more one peeps into the world of streakers and their prominence in the international world of sport the more one speculates whether such a thing may happen at this year's Beijing Olympics.

And as China prepares to host the Summer games this August with the Olympic torch soon to be lit in Greece later this month, history pundits will note that the ancient games themselves saw athletes performing in the nude way back around 720 BC.

For many sports organizers it is an unwanted disruption to the general order of an event. Usually the capture of a naked person running around a sporting field takes several minutes and several security guards.

In the professional world of sport where concentration is everything the surprise appearance of a streaker has the potential to affect the outcome of a game by the sheer chaos it brings to an event.

Streakers are also known for promoting political causes by writing statements all over their bodies, which get full coverage across the world.

For parents who have children in attendance the whole experience of seeing a grown adult run around naked before being physically, often violently, removed from the scene can be unsettling and difficult to explain.

For TV channels covering the event, the producer suffers an equally existential constraint having to decide whether or not to use the footage their cameras have captured or to cut to a quick commercial.

These days it is more common to censor the appearance so notable streaks at the 2006 Winter Olympics, once again featuring the notorious Mark Roberts who interrupted the men's bronze medal curling match and another incident where a Polish female streaker showed up at the closing ceremony, were blotted out for the camera, passing into relative obscurity.

Last year in New Zealand parliament tabled the Events Management Bill nicknamed the Anti-Streaking Supplementary Order Paper that sought to put a stop to streakers by sending them to jail for three months in addition to giving them huge fines.

Often streakers run naked because they are trying to win a bet with their friends who have dared them to strip for money. Authorities believe that taking away the financial temptation may curtail streakers' enthusiasm.

Apparently the University of Georgia holds the record for the most streakers at one time with 1,549 simultaneous streakers taking place on this day, 34 years ago on March 7, 1974.

This was a pivotal year for streaking culminating in another Australian's mad dash onto the ground of an England vs. France Rugby Union match at Twickenham. The photograph shows a police officer using his helmet to cover up the man's lower regions. This picture is now legendary and the sport of streaking firmly established.

Come August we'll just have to wait and see if the Bird's Nest loses any feathers.