1 NICKLAS BENDTNER The dashing Dane was having trouble hitting barn doors with boots of any colour, but now he’s in the pink, he’s in the goals. “I love my pink boots!” gushes Nick, 20. “The only way anyone can beat me at Arsenal is by wearing diamond-encrusted boots.”

2 DENNIS RODMAN The first basketballer to date Madonna demanded nothing more from a quiet evening in than painting his nails, wearing dresses that revealed a nicely turned ankle and dyeing his hair all the colours of the rainbow. And pink. “If you don’t like it, kiss my ass,” he noted poetically.

3 PAULA CREAMER The American golfer couldn’t be more pink if she changed her name to Pinka Pinker. She loves pink clothes, she has pink golf balls, pink grips, a pink bag, a pink nickname (the Pink Panther) and probably has a Pink album at home. She may have some childhood issues to resolve.

4 MIDDLESEX In 2007, just to show how seriously they were taking Twenty20 cricket, Middlesex decided to support breast cancer and wear the sort of pink that looked as if it had been white until a recent Hotpoint catastrophe. “The players are 100% behind this and can’t wait to pull on the pink shirts,” fibbed Owais Shah. For £40, you could buy a replica. Estimated sales: 0.

5 MARIA SHARAPOVA As adept at brand enhancement as winning tennis tournaments, Sharapova launched a pink phone, a diamond pink watch, a pink tennis bag and even a pink camera. And the Russian even played in pink, encouraged her fans to dress in pink and ended up in the black. As well as in the pink . . .

6 STADE FRANCAIS Under their owner, the in-no-way-attention-seeking media magnate Max Guazzini, the Paris rugby union club’s away shirt has been pink (with some super, camp lightning flashes) since 2005. Apparently he wanted to shock the overly butch rugby world.

7 WEST INDIES Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, Michael Holding and their chums were perhaps cricket’s most scary ensemble. So, to level the playing field, when West Indies entered Kerry Packer’s World Series carnival in 1977, they did so clad head to toe in pink, resembling some far-from-butch Caribbean flamingos. They still won two of the three “Supertests”.

8 BASEBALL Major League Baseball celebrates Mother’s Day by encouraging its finest to use pink bats. But not San Diego Padres infielder Geoff Blum, who refused to think pink: “I love my mother but I will never swing a pink bat. She understands.”

9 T-MOBILE Cycling is not just about doping, you know. It’s also about men in tight-fitting clothing. And none fitted more snugly than the T-Mobile team’s (until the telecommunications giant stopped funding last year, citing doping). The company logo is a lurid pink. Ergo, so was the cyclists’ kit.

10 EUROPEAN RYDER CUP TEAM Europe won the 2006 Ryder Cup - and the fashion war. For the closing ceremony the Europeans wore matching pink jackets to heighten awareness of breast cancer. Was that Mrs Doubtfire at the side? No, just Colin Montgomerie.

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