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Harbhajan Singh: What he said, really meant and definitely didn’t
Harbhajan Singh ‘Marshalls’ domestic pacers.
Harbhajan Singh – Ind Vs Eng,Mumbai, March 29,2006. Copyright I am the creator of the photograph. Camera manufacturer :: CANON, Camera model :: A610; Pixels :: 5 Megapixels; Zoom :: 4X (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
What he said:
“But we shouldn’t leave so much grass where even a 120-kph bowler appears like Malcolm Marshall.”
Indian team discard and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh is critical of the BCCI policy to provide green-top wickets for the ongoing Ranji trophy.
He said:
“Our wickets make such bowlers look unplayable. Some of these bowlers end up picking 50 wickets in a season. So you can’t ignore them. When such a bowler is picked for international cricket, he gets exposed while bowling on a slightly drier surface. The ball doesn’t reach the batsman.”
“I feel the wicket should offer help to pacers on the first morning but it shouldn’t get bowlers into a mindset that ‘waah, toss jeet gaye, ab toh mera hi din hai [wow, we have won the toss. Now it is my day]’. There should be help for bowlers but if a batsman applies himself he should also be able to score big. And on the fourth-fifth days, spinners should come into play.
Play on a sporting wicket but don’t play on a wicket where ordinary bowlers are made to look terrorizing. It doesn’t help. We are not taking the game anywhere. You are giving fake confidence to bowlers. Anybody can bowl on such wickets. It is like on a rank turner, anybody can take wickets. Similarly, any seamer who can swing the ball a bit and bowls a good line and length will do well on such tops. But to make it challenging, you have to make the conditions change just like it happens in Test cricket.”
What he really meant:
“It was alright when we had spinning wickets on the first day for home Tests, and we spinners could corner all the wickets. The fast bowlers would just take the shine off the ball. But this means the boot is on the other foot and I can’t kick unshod. Besides, how am I to make the World Cup squad if I can’t get anyone out?”
What he definitely didn’t:
“The additional bounce suits me just fine. My kind of bowling relies less on turn and more on upward trajectory.”
Alex Ferguson: What he said, really meant and definitely didn’t
Alex Ferguson waxes effusive on Jose Mourinho.
Alex Ferguson, manager of Manchester United F.C. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
What he said:
“He’s good looking, he’s got that sort of George Clooney bit in his hair now. But I think he is a great example, he can speak five languages or whatever he can.”
Former Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson showers praise on current Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho in an interview to Clare Balding for a BT Sport documentary to be broadcast on Boxing Day.
Ferguson added:
“He goes and becomes an interpreter for Bobby Robson, follows him to Barcelona, works under Louis Van Gaal; he is learning all the time.He [Mourinho] has got a determination, he wants to be a coach.He never played the game, by the way – you tell me how many presidents would give a manager a job who has never played the game? None. But he has done it.
Then he goes and manages a small team in Portugal, then goes to Porto and wins the league, wins the Uefa Cup, wins the European Cup, goes to Chelsea and wins the league. Goes to Inter Milan. That is an example to anyone who wants to do well, you shouldn’t let the barriers get in your way if you want to.”
Português: O treinador de futebol português José Mourinho. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Blues coach Mourinho reciprocated the Scot’s approval with similar acclaim (on the same show).
The Portuguese said that he always ordered the same bottle of wine whenever United played them at Stamford Bridge.
Mourinho said:
“It was Chelsea Football Club catering that bought the wine, and obviously the wine was not the top quality that the boss deserves. It was quite funny but disappointing.
So the next time we play against each other, I called a friend and I told him, the best I want the best.
And from that moment always the same bottle when I play against the boss.”
He added:
“Everything, his talent, the time he put his talent at the service of Manchester United and football in general. The passion that he has put in to everything, and after that in private moments, obviously, a good friend, a good person, a fantastic sense of humour. I like him very, very much. Now and again I’ve had questions to put to him and the way he has answered to me was always magnificent and a great support.”
What Ferguson really meant:
“He’s better looking than me plus he can travel all over Europe with his facility for picking up new languages. Imagine he can coach in five different tongues and claim he’s the ‘Chosen One’ in each of them too.”
What he definitely didn’t:
“He (Mourinho) would make a great travelling salesman, wouldn’t he?”
Frank Tyson: What he said, really meant and definitely didn’t
Frank Tyson is a man of contradictions, atavistic yet progressive.
What he said:
“To bowl quick is to revel in the glad animal action.”
Former English fast bowler—arguably the quickest of the quicks—Frank Holmes Tyson describes the thrill of unleashing thunderbolts.
Tyson said:
“There is a sudden shock shaking me to the skull as the stiff left leg crashes into the unsympathetic turf. My whole body flings itself after the ball as if in malediction towards the batsman. To bowl quick is to revel in the glad animal action.”
Do pacers enjoy knocking down their opponents?
“When people ask me about the use of the bouncer, of the fast bowler wanting to hit the batsman, I never understand that. I never wanted to hit people; I wanted to get them out. You use the bouncer in a shock capacity. I was almost a one-day wonder, in terms of how much Test cricket I played. But the one thing I knew was that I could get past the Australian batsmen, with sheer pace. I had a captain, Len Hutton, who used me with a certain criteria in mind. I could either bowl in a holding capacity or in a shock capacity. Alright, I concede I was fast, but it was not something that I could maintain over a period of time.”
Tyson was a student of English literature graduating from the University of Durham.
The Englishman was prone to reciting poetry to his opponents.
His favourite was William Wordsworth’s “Ode on the intimation to immortality when recollected in early childhood” which he would
soliloquise to himself on his way back to the mound.
“The rainbow comes and goes,
And lovely is the rose;
The moon doth with delight
Look round her when the heavens are bare;
Waters on a starry night
Are beautiful and fair;
The sunshine is a glorious birth;
But yet I know, where’er I go,
That there hath past away a glory from the earth.”
What he really meant:
“There’s nothing more aggressive and brutish on the cricket field than the sight of a fast bowler intimidating the opposition with pace and skill. To be a fast bowler is to be an animal—for the moment—and enjoy the feeling.”
What he definitely didn’t:
“Poetry in motion cherry by my side
My lovely locomotion keeps the batsman’s eyes open wide
Poetry in motion see the coward sway
A wave out on the ocean could never move that way.(With apologies to Johnny Tillotson).”
MS Dhoni: What he said, really meant and definitely didn’t
MS Dhoni is all about setting an example for the children.
What he said:
“A lot of time we are asked what spirit of cricket is. What I feel is it is something you don’t want your kids to do when they are playing.”
Mahendra Singh Dhoni re-defines the spirit of cricket. The Indian skipper does not need the ICC definition that states that “cricket is always played in a truly sportsmanlike manner.”
Dhoni said:
“Till they are not abusing each other, and don’t cross the line, it(aggression) is fine. A lot of kids and elderly people also watch the game. A lot of time we are asked what spirit of cricket is. What I feel is it is something you don’t want your kids to do when they are playing.
If anything that is within the boundaries, within the guidelines of the game, I am happy with it. You also want a bit of aggression in the game because it provides entertainment to the spectators.”
What he really meant:
“You wouldn’t want your kids sledging you when you’re playing backyard or courtyard cricket, do you?”
What he definitely didn’t:
“It’s all part and parcel of the game. Kids should take to sledging like a fish to water.”
VVS Laxman: What he said, really meant and definitely didn’t
VVS Laxman springs to a quick defence.
What he said:
What he really meant:
“One team’s aggro is another team’s folly, is it?”
What he definitely didn’t:
“I agree. The Indian side should go gently into the night.”
Mark Taylor: What he said, really meant and definitely didn’t
Mark Taylor is neither cuddle-some nor huddle-some.
What he said:
“I’ll put that in the same category as the third new ball. Over-rated. Huddles are over-rated.”
What he really meant:
“I could cuddle my team-members all day but without a plan in the huddle, we’d all be in a muddle.”
What he definitely didn’t:
“It’s cold out in the middle, let’s huddle more often.”
Shane Warne: What he said, really meant and definitely didn’t
Shane Warne is a hard man to please.
Shane Warne (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
What he said:
“He has to change his body language, it needs to be stronger – he looks a bit soft. He needs to puff his chest out a bit, look harder.”
Shane Warne stirred up a storm with his criticism of Mitchell Starc in the second Test at Brisbane against India.
The former Australian leg-spinner and all-time great was commentating for Nine Network.
Darren Lehmann was among those to react.
Lehmann said:
“Soft. He used those words? That’s very harsh…I will take it up with Shane myself.”
Starc’s girlfriend Australian women’s cricketer Alyssa Healy was quick to come to his defence on Twitter.
She said:
Shane Warne, forced to back-pedal, responded on Twitter:
Starc appeared to respond positively to the brouhaha scoring a fifty in Australia’s batting essay and cleaning out first innings centurion Murali Vijay for 27.
What Warne really meant:
“Fast bowlers are meant to intimidate the opposition, look them in the eye and stare them down. That’s the body language I’m referring to. I was able to do that and I was no pacer!”
What he definitely didn’t:
“Cricket used to be a gentleman’s game. What has the world come to?”
Bharat Arun: What he said
Bharat Arun is quite the psychologist.
English: Robert Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
What he said:
“Sometimes, being over-aroused is as bad as being under-aroused.”
Team India’s new bowling coach, Bharat Arun, has the readers flummoxed.
What is he talking about?
The Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) at the New South Wales Education and Communities website defines Optimum Arousal thus:
“While anxiety is predominately a psychological state, arousal refers to a physiological state. Arousal can be described as the degree of energy release and the intensity of readiness of the performer or as drive or excitation. There are levels of arousal that can produce optimal performance depends on the sport and the individual. Arousal is a necessary ingredient in sports performance, although its level can wither, facilitate or hinder the execution of specific skills or task components. Arousal levels vary on a continuum from deep sleep to high excitement.
Optimal arousal does not mean maximal arousal. Both over-arousal and under-arousal can contribute to poor performance. An individual will perform a skill most successfully when the level of arousal is optimal for that particular task. A poor performance may be due to low level of arousal, perhaps resulting from distraction, disinterest or a depressed level of motivation. The other end of the spectrum is a state of over-arousal, whereby the athlete is unable to perform the required movement with precision because he/she is excessively tense and unable to concentrate.
Levels of arousal vary considerably between individuals and they respond to different stimuli to raise or lower their levels of arousal. Arousal has drive properties, meaning that the manipulation of factors that affect anxiety can increase or decrease arousal. Generally, athletes who have a high disposition towards anxiety require less arousal than those who have a low disposition towards anxiety.”
Arun was responding to Ravichandran Ashwin being a “very intense cricketer.”
Arun added:
“There is an optimum level of arousal that a player needs to maintain, and that’s what we mean by controlled aggression. When you get too deep into something, you don’t see the little but important things around you. We keep reminding him not to get there and help him maintain the optimum arousal level. Once we do that, he is okay.”
Virat Kohli: What he said, really meant and definitely didn’t
Virat Kohli is a pacific leader.
What he said:
“If I’m playing the peacemaker, you can imagine what was going on out there.”
Virat Kohli believes that he has discovered new-found maturity as the skipper of the Indian cricket squad. He was describing his reaction to frayed tempers on the fourth day of the first Test match at Adelaide.
India lost to Australia but not before taking the fight to their opponents.
Kohli scored the most runs by a player in his first match as skipper.
Kohli added:
“But I knew I was the captain and had to step in, otherwise things would have turned ugly. I think I am getting smarter and more mature with age… And with a little bit of captaincy, some grey hair as well. I realised I had to step in and calm things down.”
On his stint as skipper:
“I haven’t slept on all the five days. Honestly, I’ll have 12 more grey hairs in my beard now. But I enjoyed captaincy despite the result… We were going for the win, it didn’t happen. We had the right approach and we are not far away.”
What he really meant:
“I guess it’s a little like Donald Duck conducting Anger Management sessions.”
What he definitely didn’t:
“Set a hot-head to cool another.”
Gary Neville: What he said, really meant and definitely didn’t
Gary Neville pub-crawls back and froth from The Dog and Duck to The Red Lion.
What he said:
“It’s the Dog and Duck versus The Red Lion.”
Former Manchester United player and skipper Gary Neville likens the upcoming match-up between Liverpool and Manchester United to a game between two pub sides.
Neville was commenting on United’s poor show against Southampton where they won 2-1 and had them sitting pretty at third spot in the English Premier League standings on the back of five consecutive wins.
Neville said:
“United got away with murder tonight. They look shot of confidence. United will be delighted to sit third and think they will get better.”
Louis van Gaal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
United manager Louis Van Gaal warned Neville to “pay attention to his words”.
The Dutchman said:
“He can say everything because he is an ex-legend. But as an ex-legend … or as a legend, you have to know what you are saying. You can interpret that [as you like]. It’s not difficult. He has to pay attention to his words.”
Van Gaal singled out fellow countryman Robin Van Persie for praise following his brace against Southampton but conceded that United were not up to par.
Van Gaal said:
“He was one of the three players on the pitch of Manchester United who were good or maybe very good. He had a great influence on the result. Very positive.
Until now it was his best performance. I hope but I have to say I was very pleased with his performance and also his goals. His second was not so easy because the ball was coming towards his right foot and he connected with his left. A nice touch. Normally you have six, seven, eight players who are good. But today there were too many not good, I believe.”
Robin van Persie (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
What Neville really meant:
“If that’s the level of play Liverpool and United are going to bring to the table, I’d be better off catching up with some Sunday League game instead or playing in one myself.”
What he definitely didn’t:
“You do know that the Dog and Duck and The Red Lion are two of my favourite sports bars, right? That’s where we should watch Sunday soccer, not in some bloody sanitised studio. Soak up the atmosphere, eh?”
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Make Time For Sports. 