Not only funny tales, interesting facts are also there. Few days ago only I was going through a cricket book written by Barry O’Brien and Mudar Patherya. The book is full of interesting tales and facts. Naturally I enjoyed reading that book very much. I am writing here some of the tales which I came through while reading the book. The facts here have been written countrywise. I am going to start and end also with my fav. Team (after India) West Indies. Don’t forget to read the miscellaneous section and the last fact.
!……..W.I……..!
~ Let me start with my favourite star Brian Lara. You know he plays golf right-handed so that his batting remains unaffected.
~ This is, I think, the funniest of all. Shivnarine Chanderpaul once uprooted the stumps and was running with them after New Zealand was bowled out in the second innings of the Barbados test in 1996. To his great embarrassment he was told by the umpire to return the stumps as West Indies had still to score 29 runs to win the match.
~ This is one of my best interesting facts related to cricket. The super slow motion of the stroke with which Brian Lara broke Sir Gary Sobers’ record test score of 365 clearly shows Lara’s backfoot grazing the stumps. The bails only trembled. Lara rewrote history. I wish I could have cherished that moment.
~ Sir Gary Sobers got selected in the team as an orthodox left-arm spinner. I heard somewhere that initially Sachin Tendulkar also wanted to become a fast bowler.
~ Hampshire coach Malcolm Marshall fined his bowlers 2 pounds for each ‘no ball’ bowled. It worked like magic. Hampshire’s ‘no ball’ problem disappeared overnight.
!……..AUS……..!
~ When Sir Don Bradman went out to play his last test innings, the English captain Norman Yardley, a very good friend of the Don, called all his players around the batsman and they sang for he’s a good fellow and gave him three cheers. The master later admitted: ‘(At moments like that) obviously you’ve got to be very emotional, or you’re not human’. Really touching words from the legend.
~ Craig Mcdermott underwent 14 surgeries-9 on his knees, three on his groin, one for hernia and one for a twisted bowel due to which ho could not finish five consecutive tours.
~ Colin Cowdrey’s father made sure his son’s initials were MCC.
~ ‘ Cancer is a very personal thing. You can’t ask anyone else to go and have treatment for you. Seeing me play cricket might just give someone the shot in the arm to get through tough times’- Simon O’Donnell. He was having the record of fastest 50 before Jayasuriya.
!……..IND……..!
~ Let’s start with juggernaut. Do you know the name of Navjot Sidhu’s wife? Try to guess and it’s there in the comments section.
~ Born on the night of India’s historic World cup win, Prudential Singh, a baby girl, left her parents with little choice while choosing her name. Not a bad name indeed!
~Karl Liebenberg, in the first decision given by a third umpire, declared Sachin Tendulkar run-out in the Durban Test match against South Africa in 1992-93.
~ ‘ I want to see a century from you at Bombay before I die. I have just two months to live’- a cancer patient from Sangli, Maharashtra to Sunil Gavaskar in 1976.
~ Do you know one thing about Anil Kumble. He bowls to each and every batsmen (of the opposition) in his mind the night before a match.
~ you know Javed Miandad also used to bowl but the surprising thing is that he was Chetan Chauhan’s most feared bowler.
!……..N.Z……..!
~ After a fine start to his career, New Zealander Roger Twose came down to earth by scoring 2, 0, 2 & 2 in 4 consecutive innings against the West Indies. Rumour has it that he is thinking of changing his name to ‘Roger Hundreds’.
~ Lisa Astle was selected in the New Zealand women’s team the same day that her brother Nathan Astle was chosen to make his test debut against Zimbabwe.
!……..ENG……..!
~ Let’s start with the Shepherd. Oops! David Shepherd. You know he scored a century in his first-class debut for Gloucestershire against Oxford University in 1965. God knows how many runs he scored by running between the wickets.
~ Tony Greig scored 103 against India in Calcutta batting with a body temperature of 104-degree F. He is one of my favourite commentators.
~ ‘ I felt like an old maid defending her virginity’- Douglas Jardine after scoring 1 run in 90 min. during the bodyline series. Yeh to Rahul Dravid ko bhi piche chod diya. Great work indeed!
!……..PAK……..!
~ Hey, Shahid Afridi should give some of the credits for scoring the fastest century to Waqar Younis. You know Afridi borrowed that bat from Younis in that match.
~ After Waqar Younis broke the toes of many county cricketers in his first season with surrey, many batsmen started wearing boots with specially reinforced tips while facing him.
!……..SL……..!
~ How can I leave this team. You know Aravinda De Silva is perhaps the only player in test history to have reached a century by hitting a 6 on three occasions.
!……..S.A……..!
~ Could find only 1 interesting fact related to this country. Brian Mcmillan -‘when I bowl I talk to the batsman’.
!……..MISC……..!
~ There is a picturesque small ground not far from Christchurch, called THE VALLEY OF PEACE. It has been so called because no woman has ever been allowed to enter that ground. Rightly so!
~ ‘I love cricket more than I love my wife’-Sujit Arya, one of the millions of cricket-crazy fans in India.
~ According to Jonathan Rice the two most difficult jobs in cricket are spelling the Sri Lankan Test team and out-talking Henry Blofeld. I never heard him.
~ ‘ I am a baby at heart. I shall remain a teenager all my life. I may look old but I am young in my approach to almost everything’- Bob Woolmer.
~ ‘Drinking the best tea in the world on an empty cricket ground- that I think, is the final pleasure left to man’- C.P.Snow. I wonder whether that pleasure will be there if it is night.
!……..W.I……..!
~ Let’s again start with the great Brian Lara only. ‘ I named my daughter Sydney because that was where I had my best test innings- 277 vs. Australia in 1992-93. It’s a very, very unique name’ he said after that match.
~ You know Andy Roberts is one of 16 children of a fisherman in Antigua.
~ West Indies fast bowler Patterson Thompson bowled 64 no balls in 132.2 overs in Red Stripe Cup matches and 26 no balls in his 26 overs in his debut test against New Zealand in 1996. Great achievement indeed!
~ Since 1963 three Murrays have kept wickets for the West Indies in tests- Deryck, David and Junior.
~ And finally let’s end with Brian Lara only. Do you want to write to him, want to know his address? I will mail his address to each and everyone who will comment on this review. So, don’t wait.
There are many more interesting facts in the book. I wish I could have written all of them. Particularly the common things in Mohinder Amarnath and Malcolm Marshall. It seems that they were brothers in their last birth. Anyway, enjoy it.
