Another one bites the dust: the St John's pitch gets a peck from Lara after his mammoth 375 © PA Photos

Nowhere is PDA more accepted or celebrated than on the sports field. Sweaty hugs, bum pats, 11-player pile-ons... it's all par for the course, but a truly remarkable and joyous moment deserves a kiss. As Brian Lara demonstrated after his record breaking 375 against England in Antigua in 1994.

Bats, balls, helmets and baggy greens get all the love, but won't someone think of the stumps? Prized souvenirs they may be at the end of a thrilling match, but no one's lining up to kiss them. Bishan Bedi decided to fix that.

Sticky wicket: Bedi gives the stumps some love after India came back from 2-0 to level the series against Australia 2-2 in 1977-78 John Patrick O'Gready / © Fairfax Media/Getty Images

No trophy has been slobbered over, metaphorically and literally, as much as the poor Ashes urn. So enthusiastic are teams in their affection for the little relic, it's a wonder no one's choked on it yet. One can hope it gets a wipe-down after every series.

At least buy it dinner first: Peter Siddle and Michael Clarke don't hold back © Getty Images

Hugs and high fives are passé. Real men show their appreciation for a five-for with a solid smackeroo. Just ask Faf du Plessis.

Kiss-mas come early: Rabada get a peck from the captain for his five-wicket haul that downed Australia in Perth in 2016 © Cricket Australia/Getty Images

Ricky Ponting's done it. Virat Kohli does it all the time. But has anyone done the flying kiss quite like Doug Bollinger?

The flying New South Welshman: in a past life Bollinger was a ballet dancer Mark Dadswell / © Getty Images

In 2004, Lee Borcoski and Maria McElroy decided to make their love for cricket official - by tying the knot pitch-side during tea break at Eden Park in the middle of a New Zealand-South Africa Test. The result was a draw.

Get pitched: love, unlike cricket, has no boundaries Phil Walter / © Getty Images

When Whitney Houston sang, "Learning to love yourself, it is the greatest love of all", Dickie Bird was taking notes. When a bronze statue of Bird was unveiled in his hometown of Barnsley, guess who lined up to kiss its feet first.

Dickie Bird knows there's no statue of limitations on self-love John Giles / © PA Photos/Getty Images

Cricketers are often non-consensually manhandled by over-eager fans and pitch invaders. Case in point: Ian Botham in the picture below...

Where's my kiss? Dickie Bird wants to get in on the action after Botham is snogged by a passing pitch invader © PA Photos/Getty Images

But what do you do when the photographer wants a piece of you?

Sheikh hands: not the congratulations Adam Hollioake was expecting Chris Turvey / © PA Photos

Off-field PDA from team-mates is de rigueur after a notable win, and the Lord's balcony has seen the best of it.

Shaun Pollock plants a wet one on Jacques Kallis after South Africa's win over England in the second Test at Lord's in 1998 © PA Images via Getty Images

Is Jhye Richardson a Paul Stanley-Gene Simmons fan? Is this what he intends to do to the opposition? Will he kiss and tell?

Keep it swinging and seaming? Richardson thinks on his feet Paul Kane / © Getty Images

Jason Gillespie, maker of a legendary double-century, sometime fast bowler, also moonlights as Dr Doolittle it seems. Except he seems to have got his aquatic mammals mixed up.

Dizzy's favourite song? "Kiss from a Rose" by Dolphin Hamish Blair / © Getty Images

Deepti Unni is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

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