You want a cow with that win? How about a biscuit?

The trophy Australia and Pakistan are playing for in their T20 series in the UAE has naturally drawn a lot of funny responses. Captains Aaron Finch and Sarfraz Ahmed posed sheepishly with a biscuit-shaped trophy, in honour of sponsors TUC, ahead of the series this week. The “cheesy” remarks ranged from “this trophy takes the biscuit”, to “it’s a cracker”, and many more.

It makes you wonder how much thought organisers actually put in when crafting a trophy. But, strangely enough, they are not alone in designing eccentric sporting silverware over the years.

American college football is particularly creative when it comes to designing trophies.

Since 1903, the winner of the Michigan-Minnesota college football game receives the Little Brown Jug, while the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin play for the Paul Bunyan Axe. The scores of each game are recorded on the axe’s handle, which is a whopping six feet long.

Equally bizarre is the Illibuck trophy – a wooden turtle for the winners of the Illinois and Ohio State clash. A live turtle was used to symbolise the rivalry, until it died several years later.

Tennis also has its fair share of strange trophies. The winner of the Memphis Open receives a fully functional, custom-made Gibson ES-335 guitar, while our own Kevin Anderson walked away with some abstract art at the New York Open this year after his victory.

Nascar certainly take their trophies to a new level. The first driver across the finishing line at the Martinsville Speedway receives a grandfather clock, while the New Hampshire Motor Speedway hands out live lobsters.

Cycling, not wanting to be outdone, is equally outrageous.

Win the first stage of the Tour of Belgium, get a keg of beer. Win the Paris-Roubaix, get a cobblestone mounted on a plinth. Win the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey’s first stage, get a massive bunch of bananas.

But perhaps the strangest one of all goes to alpine ski racer Lindsey Vonn. In 2005, she won a calf at Val d’Isere, and then was offered $5 000 in exchange for the cow. But she opted to keep the calf and has since added more to her herd, including goats won in other races.

They now all live happily ever after on a farm in Austria.

Trevor Stevens

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