Cricket Anecdotes (spawned from the Gavin Robertson thread)

[Guest HariSampath]

These are 2 direct ones I had with Sir Geoffrey Boycott over the last 4-5 years ( through email and again by phone. HS : Sir Geoffrey, you claim to have played the best fast bowlers of them and all and had answers, here is a question. Which one would you prefer more, an Ashes hundred or a Roses Hundred" ? GB ( after a while) : I would have to let that one go by ( on TV ) And second time... GB :( on air) One day cricket has come a long way in the last 20 years or so. HS ( by email) Well, Sir Geoffrey, you can always claim this was a game you started in 1975, but then who will ever believe it ? Geoffrey Boycott 1. Hari Sampath 1 :D

[Guest HariSampath]

Mods, possible to make a new thread frm post 14....otherwise it mite get lost ..... will be an awesome thread... i absolutely enjoy these. n hope other wud also like this

Oh...off topic ? :cry_smile: I guess so......but then we have spent more time on the Gavin Robertson thread than he did for Australia :-)

[zubinpepsi]

"Actually I was here to fix the water pipes back then"

:hysterical: honeslty i have never heard most of the names u guys were talking about.. neverthless enjoyed every bit of it... wasnt also one guy who when invited to the queen's hse did something insulting to the queen?? dont remem the name... but heard something in tht line....do u know??

[varun]

Oh...off topic ? :cry_smile: I guess so......but then we have spent more time on the Gavin Robertson thread than he did for Australia :-)

In fact, your posts, and Lurker's posts have been moved to this thread 'coz they were too good to be lost in Gavin's thread

[zubinpepsi]

Oh...off topic ? :cry_smile: I guess so......but then we have spent more time on the Gavin Robertson thread than he did for Australia :-)

Man o Man......:hysterical:

[Guest HariSampath]

lol Doug Walters..classic character Another favorite one of mine is Keith Miller. By the by Hari do you mind if I ask you who your favorite cricketers(say 5) have been? Actually let me ask you to name yout top XI(right off your head..no need to dig deep really). You obviously know your cricket so this should be fun.

Let me try to shoot my top 5....Its probably gonna be Sir Donald....once, twice, thrice....well, I seriously believe that all cricketers come under only 2 categories, Sir Donald Bradman and others...so.well, my five would have to be. ( only Sir Don is in order of greatness, others just as I think, and not in any order) 1. Sir Donald Bradman. 2. Muthiah Muralitharan 3. Sir Vivian Richards 4. Wasim Akram 5. Sachin Tendulkar Sir Garfield Sobers and Geofrey Boycott too are very close on this, but as I hadn't seen them play and ....yes, they could well be 4 of the remaining 6 , after Donald Bradman ( who I almost felt like have seen, regretted never to have seen, but realised never HAVE to see)

[yoda]

Books ZP. I love reading and am guessing Hari does too. They are specially good when it comes to reading about oldies. I mean new media(read internet) concentrates on modern era but old books shall give you lot of gems. Like that former Australia leg spinner Arthur Mailey who was a very down to earth and humble guy. Once he was invited to the Queen's house in London and was introduced. He is reputed to have told her, "Nice house Maam..I was here about 5 years earlier". "Oh really? Whom were you visiting?" "Actually I was here to fix the water pipes back then". How can you not love such nonchalance :two_thumbs_up:

:D

[zubinpepsi]

Let me try to shoot my top 5....Its probably gonna be Sir Donald....once, twice, thrice....well, I seriously believe that all cricketers come under only 2 categories, Sir Donald Bradman and others...so.well, my five would have to be. ( only Sir Don is in order of greatness, others just as I think, and not in any order) 1. Sir Donald Bradman. 2. Muthiah Muralitharan 3. Sir Vivian Richards 4. Wasim Akram 5. Sachin Tendulkar

Hari, its interesting to see someone with a tainted action as ur no.2 any reasons?? cuz of the no.of wkts solely?? how do u rate shane warne? and last but not least how dare u put sachin at no.5 :D. expect 100 more posts....

[Guest BossBhai]

-- Removed on request of the user --

[Guest BossBhai]

-- Removed on request of the user --

[Lurker]

:hysterical: honeslty i have never heard most of the names u guys were talking about.. neverthless enjoyed every bit of it...

This is the one I was talking about, Arthur Mailey. 99 wickets in 21 tests. http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/columns/content/player/6465.html

wasnt also one guy who when invited to the queen's hse did something insulting to the queen??dont remem the name... but heard something in tht line....do u know??

That was Dennis Lillee. This guy http://content-www.cricinfo.com/australia/content/player/6295.html He was once playing Ian Botham and consistently beating him. Finally he couldnt take no more, so walked up to Botham(or Beefy as he was called) and said "Damn Beefy...do yourself and just keep the bat straight...let me aim at it rather than you try to score runs". xx

[Lurker]

These are 2 direct ones I had with Sir Geoffrey Boycott over the last 4-5 years ( through email and again by phone. HS : Sir Geoffrey, you claim to have played the best fast bowlers of them and all and had answers, here is a question. Which one would you prefer more, an Ashes hundred or a Roses Hundred" ? GB ( after a while) : I would have to let that one go by ( on TV ) And second time... GB :( on air) One day cricket has come a long way in the last 20 years or so. HS ( by email) Well, Sir Geoffrey, you can always claim this was a game you started in 1975, but then who will ever believe it ? Geoffrey Boycott 1. Hari Sampath 1 :D

Hahaha...Superb questions both. Hats off. By the by for those interested - Roses game is essentially county game between Yorkshire and Lancashire, as passionate as Indo-Pak game. xxx

[Lurker]

1. Sir Donald Bradman. 2. Muthiah Muralitharan 3. Sir Vivian Richards 4. Wasim Akram 5. Sachin Tendulkar Sir Garfield Sobers and Geofrey Boycott too are very close on this, but as I hadn't seen them play and ....yes, they could well be 4 of the remaining 6 , after Donald Bradman ( who I almost felt like have seen, regretted never to have seen, but realised never HAVE to see)

Thats quality 5 Hari. Hard to argue with, though one can(theoretically) talk about Barnes, Pollock, George Headley and many others. I was intrigued by your selection of Boycott in top 10. How did that happen? I mean even his ardent fans dont really put him in top 20 let alone top 10. Would you like to elaborate on that selection? xxx

[Guest HariSampath]

Books ZP. I love reading and am guessing Hari does too. They are specially good when it comes to reading about oldies. I mean new media(read internet) concentrates on modern era but old books shall give you lot of gems. Like that former Australia leg spinner Arthur Mailey who was a very down to earth and humble guy. Once he was invited to the Queen's house in London and was introduced. He is reputed to have told her, "Nice house Maam..I was here about 5 years earlier". "Oh really? Whom were you visiting?" "Actually I was here to fix the water pipes back then". How can you not love such nonchalance :two_thumbs_up:

:hysterical: that was an old one....yeah ZP... book reading, you see , as Lurker says due to internet and everything we have loads of stuff on CDs , etc but most of the older era stories incidents, sometimes even anecdotes from the 1970s etc can only be read, maybe heard thru those who read or recount it from memory. and Lurks probably knows tons of stuff more than me. I remember a couple of statements by Brian Johnston of BBC test match special, as I had been listening to TMS since 1973/4 since I was a kid When Ray Ilingworth , England captain, brought on another bowler in his place to effect a bowling change. Brian J said " Ray Illingworth has just relieved himself at the pavillion end" :haha: And also during a West Indies Englland Test match in the early 1980s Brian J " The bowler is Holding the batsman's Willey" :D

[Lurker]

^^ lol...Ah yes the good old TMS. When Ian Botham almost fell on his wicket while facing Ambrose, John Agnew had quipped - "Beefy couldnt get his leg over"...(leg over being an English slang for sex) Gotta love that British humour. Here is one about Fred Trueman. He was a stickler for cricket in its purest form, and for him the purest form was side-on. Every bowler who bowled side-on was his favorite. Every batsman who played his shots side on got his vote so imagine his surprise when the following letter was sent to him, and was read by Brian Johnston on TMS. (I paraphrase since I dont have bookd at hand..am at work..oh well) "Dear Sir Fred. Let me fist say that I am your greatest fan. You have been a stellar performer for England and now as a commentator you continue to spread the knowledge of the game. Sir, I would want to say that based on your recent comments I have changed my stance to side-on hoping it would improve my performance. But it did not and so I was relegated to second level. I kept up with side-on and was now dropped for 3rd level. I gave it one last try and am now into the lowest level of my county - 4th level. If I drop any further I would essentially be dropped from the team. Do you reckon I should continue with side-on stance? - Sincerely Yours A Wicket Keeper " :hysterical:

[zubinpepsi]

Brian J " The bowler is Holding the batsman's Willey" :D

Fukatasticcccccc:haha:

[zubinpepsi]

^^ lol...Ah yes the good old TMS. When Ian Botham almost fell on his wicket while facing Ambrose, John Agnew had quipped - "Beefy couldnt get his leg over"...(leg over being an English slang for sex) Gotta love that British humour. Here is one about Fred Trueman. He was a stickler for cricket in its purest form, and for him the purest form was side-on. Every bowler who bowled side-on was his favorite. Every batsman who played his shots side on got his vote so imagine his surprise when the following letter was sent to him, and was read by Brian Johnston on TMS. (I paraphrase since I dont have bookd at hand..am at work..oh well) "Dear Sir Fred. Let me fist say that I am your greatest fan. You have been a stellar performer for England and now as a commentator you continue to spread the knowledge of the game. Sir, I would want to say that based on your recent comments I have changed my stance to side-on hoping it would improve my performance. But it did not and so I was relegated to second level. I kept up with side-on and was now dropped for 3rd level. I gave it one last try and am now into the lowest level of my county - 4th level. If I drop any further I would essentially be dropped from the team. Do you reckon I should continue with side-on stance? - Sincerely Yours A Wicket Keeper " :hysterical:

This one cracked me up..:hysterical: Thanks Llurks.

[yoda]

^^ lol...Ah yes the good old TMS. When Ian Botham almost fell on his wicket while facing Ambrose, John Agnew had quipped - "Beefy couldnt get his leg over"...(leg over being an English slang for sex) Gotta love that British humour. Here is one about Fred Trueman. He was a stickler for cricket in its purest form, and for him the purest form was side-on. Every bowler who bowled side-on was his favorite. Every batsman who played his shots side on got his vote so imagine his surprise when the following letter was sent to him, and was read by Brian Johnston on TMS. (I paraphrase since I dont have bookd at hand..am at work..oh well) "Dear Sir Fred. Let me fist say that I am your greatest fan. You have been a stellar performer for England and now as a commentator you continue to spread the knowledge of the game. Sir, I would want to say that based on your recent comments I have changed my stance to side-on hoping it would improve my performance. But it did not and so I was relegated to second level. I kept up with side-on and was now dropped for 3rd level. I gave it one last try and am now into the lowest level of my county - 4th level. If I drop any further I would essentially be dropped from the team. Do you reckon I should continue with side-on stance? - Sincerely Yours A Wicket Keeper " :hysterical:

:hysterical:

[Guest HariSampath]

Brilliant Thread .... havent read it completely yet but this one incident involving SMG and VIV at Madras when SMG came into bat ant #4 instead of his usual spot ... it soo happened that the openers were dispatched with the score still at ZERO .... so Viv walks up to SMG and says .. man no matter where you bat your team score is always Zero .... :haha: its another thing that SMG went ahead and made his highest score afterwards and SMG must have said a few things (any body know the details? Hari? ) to Viv after having made them spend a day and half (IIRC) on the field ... and remained not out ...

Yeah, I watched that game of course, all 4 days, as the first day was washed out completely. Navjot Sidhu made his debut, and in fact I remember Mike Holding getting 60-70, blasting Shivlal Yadav all over the place for a few sixers. India were chasing just 350 or something I think 1st innings, when Gavaskar had decided to come in at no.4. Marshall was bowling one of the fastest spells I had seen at the Chepauk ( and I had seen a few serious fast spells there), and in 2 balls he got 2 wkts, Gaekwad and Vengsarkar, both out to blinder catches at third slip/gully by Roger Harper, and we were 2 down for 0. I remember Gavaskar taking such a long time to come out to bat ( later I read h didn't even know he was on a hat trick). I remember telling someone with me India could well lose the game, because as the first day's play was washed out , Windies needed just 150 runs lead to enforce the follow on. But what a classic Gavaskar 236 played... we ended up saving the Game. That innings ranks right up there as possibly the best I had seen against seriously pacy bowling on a helpful track, other being Gundappa Vishwanath's innings of 97 notout out of 191, against Lloyd's 1974/5 Windies, with Andy Roberts getting 7-54

[Guest HariSampath]

This is from an Umpire in an English county game, but I don't remember the exact names.. A medium pace bowler not particularly known for bowling fast, being a very military medium bowler once hit a batsman on the pad right in front of the stumps, and when the bowler appealed, the umpire turned it down. The bowler was shocked as it was right in front of the middle stump with no hint of bat too, so he asked the umpire : Would it have missed the off stump ? the umpire said "no" , then the bowler enquired "missing leg stump ?", again umpire said "no", and when the bowler asked him if it was in line with the middle , umpire said "yes". bowler : why the bloody hell did you give that notout ? Umpire : "because it wouldn't have reached the bloody stumps" :haha: