ab de villiers

Darren Sammy: What he said, really meant and definitely didn’t

Darren Sammy lights up the maroon torch.

Darren Sammy at the Prime Ministers 11 Cricket match in Canberra 2010. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What he said:

“I’m seeing a lot of ads about Protea Fire. I guess Cape Town will be blazing, but with a maroon flame.”

The West Indians may have conceded the Test series to South Africa 2-0 but are in no mood to relinquish their exalted T20 specialists status. Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Darren Sammy and André Russell are back in the squad after plying their trade all over the world in Twenty-Twenty circuses.

The ‘Protea Fire’ referred to is a moving TV commercial #ProteaFire that promotes the unity despite diversity theme of the South African cricket side.

“In effect #ProteaFire is the cricket team’s mission statement – their identity and culture, their ethos, mantra and belief in each other and the nation.”

SA Chief Executive, Haroon Lorgat, said:

“This is a truly unique and authentic campaign because it is exactly what the Proteas believe in. It comes directly from the team and it is no creative or marketing campaign.

No country has been through what SA has and our country needs all the inspiration it can get.

Clearly the Proteas are our inspiration. As a team they have invested time to understand what it means for them to represent South Africa and now the team wishes all South Africans to know more about who they are, whom they play for and what it means to be a Protea.

We respected their wishes and that’s why we got right behind them to ensure this campaign came to life.”

JP Duminy said:

“#ProteaFire is about humility, resilience, courage, adaptability, unity and respect; these are key attributes of our rich and diverse country. #ProteaFire isn’t just about what happens on the field, it’s also about how we carry ourselves during our daily tasks. We hope that we can inspire and help shape our country by our actions on and off the field.”

Hashim Amla added:

“Despite the reality of our diverse backgrounds, religious beliefs and social upbringings, our common understanding has created a common purpose in the team that is built on our passion to represent South Africa. The real task is to get people to behave in a new way of thinking, rather than to think themselves into a new way of behaving.”

Faf du Plessis, the Blue Label T20 captain, said:

“The Proteas have developed an amazing team culture and the joy of representing South Africa is the driving force in making us want to play for all South Africans.”

What Sammy really meant:

 “It’s time for the real thing—T20 fireworks and no one does it better than the boys in maroon. What say, IPL, BPL, SLPL, BBL fans? You agree, right?”

What he definitely didn’t:

“That #ProteaFire promo is no ‘Fire in Babylon’, is it?”

Dale Steyn: What he said, really meant and definitely didn’t

AB De Villiers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dale Steyn at a training session at the Adelaide Oval (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dale Steyn at a training session at the Adelaide Oval (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dale Steyn

What he said:

“We’re definitely not predictable. You bowled two overs the other day.”

Dale Steyn contradicts himself without seemingly realizing it. The lanky pace bowler commented on his teammate A B De Villiers bowling for only the second time ever in ODIs. South Africa were playing Zimbabwe in Harare.

AB De Villiers recently came out strongly against Australian sledging terming it “personal.”

De Villiers said:

“There was lots of personal stuff and certain guys take it in a different way. I see that it’s part of the game… but they can’t expect us to be mates with them off the field then, if they get very personal.”

The South African skipper was referring to comments made during the third Test in Cape Town.

David Warner, meanwhile, apologized for accusing De Villiers of ball-tampering during the series.

Warner said:

“Obviously with myself coming out and saying the comment about AB de Villiers probably wasn’t the smartest thing, and I regret saying that.We set a standard where we want to go out there and play aggressive and hard cricket and not cross the line.

There are some times you do nudge that line a fair bit and the odd occasion you might step over that, but you do have to realize that we’re out there to win.

We do like to be aggressive and sledging is a form of the game when we’re out there.”

What Steyn really meant:

“Wasn’t that a pleasant surprise? …AB bowling two overs. I certainly didn’t expect that.”

What he definitely didn’t:

“Outliers… by Malcolm Gladwell—yeah, that’s my favorite read.”

IPL: Player auctions, Australian absences and Pakistani stalemate

Image via Wikipedia

The IPL show moves on.

The IPL player auctions are scheduled for January 8 and 9 in Bangalore. Over 400 players will go under the hammer.

Each team has a cap of $9 million to be played with.

Only two teams have opted to retain their full complement of four players—Mumbai Indians and Chennai SuperKings. Their kitty is whittled down to $4.5 million.

The cricketers have been classified into six brackets—ranging from $20,000 to $400,000.

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