Who doesn't love an autograph from their favourite cricketer? Selfies may have now overtaken autographs as the preferred medium for documenting encounters with famous celebrities, but the signature, or if you're lucky, a message from a sportsperson you've long admired remains a treasured possession. How many of the kids in the photo above would have had Joel Garner's signature framed and hanging above their mantlepiece as adults?
Would fans be allowed to run onto the field with sharp objects today? In the photo below Garry Sobers finds the time to sign kids' notebooks even as he tries to outrun a pitch invasion.
Alas, the closest some fans will get to cricketers now is through layers of security and a chicken-wire fence. But, to paraphrase Jeff Goldblum, "life… uh, finds a way".
Or you play the long game and wait for them to write a book, then spend hours queuing up to get an autographed copy but time runs out just before you get to the head of the line.
Then there's the poor players' point of view, for whom with great power comes great wrist-ponsibility.
Okay, so fans didn't always have pen and paper on them even in the past, but they improvised, in creative ways. Did the woman below get her autograph? It remains a mystery.
The problem with autographs on body parts is that they're prone to get basted in sweat, tears and beer, and will wash off if you eventually decide to take a shower. What do you do if you want it to last a lifetime?
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Do identical twins have identical signatures? A lucky bunch of fans had the opportunity to find out.
What did most of us get when we shattered a window playing cricket in the neighbourhood? A scolding if you were lucky, a hiding if not, and a lifetime ban from playing there again if your neighbour was the Grinch. Not so for proper cricketers, though - smash a window, get a commemorative plaque, most likely.
And it isn't just cricketers who are celebrities. England's club mascots have their own fan club.
Who makes heroes out of cricketers? The fans, of course. So it stands to reason that superfans are recognised nearly as much as the cricketers they revere.
Do cricketers give other cricketers autographs?
On the opening day of the third Test at The Oval in 1982, Sunil Gavaskar, fielding at silly point, found himself in the firing line of an Ian Botham square cut. The ball caught Gavaskar on the left shin, snapping his tibia and reducing him to a spectator for the rest of the match.
When the two caught up later, Botham signed the cast on Gavaskar's leg.
Then there are times when cricketers turn fans.
