Sreesanth Swinging His Bat…. Dhoom Machale?!
It’s my first time, Mutineers, so be gentle. I’m a total Cricket virgin and if you’re mean to me about what is sure to be an amateurish post, I’ll be scarred forever– whether I end up a frigid fan or not is in your hopefully kind and capable hands. 😉
After hearing about Mallu hotness Sreesanth (thanks, DTK), I had to visit ye olde YouTube to find out about this right-arm fast-medium-pace bowler, who is a right-handed tailender. Apparently, excessively lippy South African Andre Nel questioned Sreesanth’s heart/courage/skillz after Sreesanth evaded something called a bouncer. Sreesanth responded by hitting Nel for a six and then performing a dance I’d normally associate with an end zone. Oh, that was just brutal to write. I can’t imagine how many men I’ve just annoyed. 😉
I may not know a damned thing about what is arguably the most popular sport in all of South Asia, but I know the art of trash talk well and if anything could get me to fall in love with this very Brown game, it’s the video I’ve posted above. Set to some probably-famous song I’ve never heard before (“Dhoom Machale”), it’s way more fun than the other YouTube clips which came up when I searched for the new object of my lecherous (he’s eight years younger) affection. Not since I was kicked off our co-ed IM team in grad school for illegal (and may I add, utterly justified and deliciously violent) tackling during a flag-football game have I been so delighted by the immaturity of declaring “in your face!”. Gopu, I heart you. 🙂
UPDATE: The Google Video seems clearer, so I swapped it.
Did you mean “how many cricket fans..”? Anyway, I don’t think you annoyed anyone. That was an awesome clip. Love it, love it.
Awesome clip. Thank you. I just looked up cricket rules and became utterly confused. Maybe another rainy day.
this has become one of the most talked about things (and watched) in cricket in the past few days. if it weren’t for the ashes, it would probably be the number one topic of cricket conversation right now. there are other clips of him set to other music, plus other clips of him from other matches doing animated moves not normally seen on a cricket field. he was a state breakdancing champion, i think, and it shows! funnily enough, he was fined, not for this display, but for wearing illegal logos and giving south african batsman hashim amla a less than gentlemanly send-off (and deservedly fined for this i think). but nel really got what he deserved and the look on his speechless face is priceless! sreesanth’s attitude, if it doesn’t become overly obnoxious, and his talent are good things for indian cricket right now.
Anna – I have to applaud your effort. BTW, do you know what this means – “who is a right-handed tailender”
He bats right-handed and does so towards the end?
cringes
It didnot look like a bouncer. Nel (bowling at 130kmph+) probably was thrash talking just because the right handed tailender made an attempt at a pull-shot. Sreesanth’s dance was hilarious!
yeah, another in a woefully short list of mallu cricketers on the Indian national team. Like comets, rare and totally interesting.
Anna, I don’t even know you except for your posts here, and still didn’t think you had a cricket post in you.
oh i cant get enough of it… and the music is just perfect. Dhoom machale dhoom machale dhoom !!!
for xkcroi – dont sweat the details – in the basest terms – in baseball this is like a batter getting slung a beanball, and instead of being intimidated him retaliating with a homer.
actually i think this guy is supposed to be from the effeminate race (cf. previous thread on martial_races). bwahahahahahHAHA.. macaulay – eat my chaddi.
Sreesanth must be a Sikh (aka Martial race)
I think that attitude is his ‘SPCD’ 🙂
Sreesanth totally rocked! Anna, cant believe you came up with a cricket post – pull your socks up for this march, we got worldcup ’07!
Maybe the bowler said something to him about Indian manhood size after the recent controversy and he wanted to indicate something symbolically.
Awesome video! Was surprised to see it yesterday on youtube in the “Most Viewed (Today)” list. Guess the brownz are slowly making their presence on the internet felt stronger 🙂 3 cheers to brown power!
Oh BTW things seem to turn around quickly in Indian cricket, just the other day they were being called incompetent after losing a 1 day series and now they are again lovable after the historic test victory.
oh this so reminds me of the movie lagaan – which i proudly saw recently to keep the sepia tinge alive in my neighborhood dvd store – Remember the shaggy guy in the blanket who comes out and the bowler says, “he looks like he’s sitting on a horse”.
Wooooo! I can’t believe I inspired a cricket-related post on SM! From A N N A, nonetheless, whose last post inspired a lengthy discussion of lipstick and make-up techniques. (I still don’t know what undertones are.) I may have a new answer for those job interview questions where they ask for your greatest achievement.
I think I’ve mentioned this before, but the cricket world cup is coming up soon in North America (the West Indies), so I hope this is the first of several cricket-related posts. I mean, we don’t need to search for one measly desi on the French team, we will have entire teams filled with South Asians!
And great job on the cricket terms and descriptions, A N N A. I’d be more worried about the wrath of the Bollywood fans — you’ve never heard Dhoom Machale?? 😉
Though you DID forget to mention that India beat South Africa for “our” first ever test match victory on South African soil ….
ANNA = Closet Cricket fan?
Sachin? More like Sach-OUT, for a few.
Cricket: India thrashes Zimbabwe
😉
Back to the dusty archives, I go…
all this martial vs. less-martial debate is similar to the non-veg vs. veg fights that frequently break out on cricket boards, especially between fans of india and pakistan 🙂
Including in my team, England 🙂
The Indian cricket team is like the England football team — pumped full of false expectation by their fans on the basis of a single World Cup victory decades ago, believing that their unmatched passion for the game gives them a moral right to win. In truth they are second best, although studded with individually world class players. With both teams this manifests itself in the swings between depression when they lose and hysterical expectation when they win — often within one game of the other.
Way to go Anna!!!!! You have done us all proud. That was an exceptionally well written piece on cricket and the video much better than the so many others I have been the unwitting recipient of.
I’ve noticed this on a few threads on various forums – someone will always point out how Sreesanth has done all mallu’s proud. The only other linguistic group that seems to take as much pride in the achievements of others is the Bengalis. Can we construct an elaborate theory linking this “pride in others’ achievements” with communism ??
Windies have a couple of desi players from Trinidad I think – Chanderpaul and someone else.
Talking of fitting replies, This is the mother of all fitting relies. Venkatesh Prasad answering Aamir Sohail’s antics in 1996 World cup Quarter Final at Bangalore. There is no Indian cricket fan who doesn’t remember this, just as no Indian fan ever forgets Javed Miandad’s last ball sixer.
chanderpaul, sarwan, darren ganga, ramdin are some of the windies players of asian descent in the current team.
That clip is hysterical.
Great guess A N N A!!! If that was a guess. Tailenders are the dudes at the bottom of the lineup. Generally they are bowlers whose batting is generally weaker than those of players in other positions (analogous to a pitcher batting 9th in the lineup in the National League). I don’t really follow cricket, but I grew up playing baseball and Pops was a spin bowler on his college team, so I felt obligated to learn a thing or two about it.
This might be common knowledge to many folks here, but i would like to describe it for those not familiar with this incident. This was the quarterfinal of the world cup in 1996 and pakistan was going great guns. Pakistan was almost half way through the indian total losing just one wicket. Amir Sohail hits Prasad for a bounday( 4 runs) and gestures to him to go fetch the ball. Prasad gets him the very next ball. Pakistan lost the game from there and that was begginning of the end of Amir Sohail career as well.
Yayyyy! 🙂 I was so worried I sounded like an idiot.
Also, a huge thank you to everyone who is being so nice to this dilettante cricket fan. 🙂 Every girl’s first time should be so pleasant. 😉
ANNA take some time off and go watch the World Cup — a few weeks in the Carribean sunshine watching cricket sounds idyllic to me. And if you go to matches in Trinidad we can meet lots of Indian people with the best accents in the world.
That was a historic win and I think Sreesanth went a lil a overboard with his dance but its good to see agression from the indian side as they havent been doin so good lately. I used to watch just cuz of Sachin and still read (as there is no live cricket in US) it cuz of him. I hope he comes out firing next test match.
and Anna you surprise me everyday…first the stunning saree and now you are a cricket fan…marry me?
we would hate for your first experience with cricket as a lover to be bad!! a number of us have been long-time lovers of this bisexual and the rewards have been oh! so sweet. just imagine – the actual sex lasts five days in some cases. thats a long long time…:-) ah! my own first experience with her was unimaginable. Just thinking back to those days of child-marriage makes me weep. I was in second grade…. “hey! save your memories of the old days ol’ man – we got work to do”. “Eh!! these young kids. its all about instant gratification these days. tsk, tsk.”…another day then…
Nah, not a closet cricket fan. As she said, just terribly fond of boys named Sachin.
And there ain’t nothin’ wrong with an eight- (or seven-) year age difference. 😉
“first the stunning saree and now you are a cricket fan…marry me?”
Dang! Jeet beat me to that……exactly my sentiments!
For the cricket virgins this is my recommendation.
Cricket & Writing
sorry to go slightly off-topic, but any indian cricket fans looking for a good gift for other indian cricket fans should check out this recent book: The Illustrated History of Indian Cricket.
This is one review
Sreesanth did the equivalent of a baseball player hitting a home run in a regular season meaningless game and running the bases mouthing off “in yo’ face you muthafacka” to the pitcher and opposing players or Reggie Miller grabbing his crotch after a slam dunk against the Knicks. Aggression and enthusiasm is all good to get the crowd riled up. Consistent performance is another. If this young man stays on top of his game on a regular basis and plays the fool to annoy opposing players it is all good. Else he is going to become a laughing stock and an afterthought. Play the game with respect and reverence.
But on the other hand,cricket is just like another professional sport governed by politicians and power mongers. Hope fully Sreesanth can sustain the high note and do his jiggy for years to come.
HELLO! This is worth getting excited about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJvMqRJUP6s Dhoom machale to that babe, 435 aint nothing! If you donÂ’t want to watch the whole thing, Australia set a very high score and smugly thought they had the game in the bag, but South Africa played one heck of a game and trashed it! Ha ha ha…I hate the Australians, so crass! Good job Anna and that is one fine piece of meat, I mean man. Truth is that I think everyone loves the Indian cricket team a little!
I forgot to add that it was the greatest ODI ever!:)
Sreesanth did the equivalent of a baseball player …
The point is the tailender (who happens to be a fast bowler himself) hit a six off the fast bowler. Just shows that sledging is a double-edged sword.
Not exactly a reply a la Sreesanth-meets-Shakira mode, but another memorable cricket “riposte” was Tendulkar in Sharjah single-handedly bashing the Aussies in 2 consecutive matches with knocks of 134 and 124 (n.o.). Even though we lost the first of these matches, we needed to score a certain number of runs to qualify for the finals against the Aussies, who we then defeated due to his second century, as above. It was after these knocks that he was regarded the best batsman…maybe even since Bradman.
Still remember the TV shot of Tendulkar sitting in the stands during his innings, due to a temporary stoppage of play because of a dramatic sandstorm in the desert environs of the stadium, looking steely eyed (you could break a rock with his eyeballs!) and not even taking his helmet or gloves off, because he was so determined to get back onto the field & hit the frickin’ arrogant Aussies out of the game. Truer grit and drive, was never seen before this…
CinnamonRani,
it would be better to say that I have a love-hate affair with the Indian team. I simply love them when they are playing professional cricket and having a whole bunch of fun doing it as when Viru and Dhoni go at it and Dravid just calmly nails the lid of the coffin on. I simply hate it when the hang their heads before the game is over. It ranks as the most irritating thing ever. The worldcup finals loss to Australia still rankles bitterly. Oh! what a waste of McDonalds coffee!!!!
Here’ another classic from Sreesanth http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sPChZecDGo
I’ve hear that he’s an avid break-dance fan.
Linky http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sPChZecDGo
He’s not just a fan of breakdance, but was apparently a national champion at one stage: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/4785572.stm
Wow, a lot of the comments under that clip are disgusting. Is it just jackasses on YouTube who think “he must be gay” or is that a common insult hurled his way? It didn’t help that the video was set to one of the most annoying songs of all time, “My Humps”. shudder
I am guessing you have never seen the comments in yahoo message boards under any news about India. Good thing yahoo took it down today.
“Wow, a lot of the comments under that clip are disgusting. Is it just jackasses on YouTube who think “he must be gay” or is that a common insult hurled his way?”
unfortunately that is tame stuff compared to what used to go on on the bbc south asian cricket board, especially between pakistani and indian cricket fans (generally not even from india or pakistan but based elsewhere). the conversation and rivalry descended to the most abysmal, immature depths, several times prompting the mods to shut the board down, eventually permanently so.
ANNA, Here is some more stuff on your boy/cricketer of choice. I like some others have gotten into it because my dad is such a fanatic. I was also in India during the ’04 India/Pakistan series, which started the slight addiction.
http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/india/content/player/34274.html
wow, awesome ANNA.
Sreesanth is an exception in Indian Cricket, he is one of the most aggressive bowlers. He will even put Aussie bowlers to shame with his aggressive attitude.
Hahaha yesss!!!
Sreesanth is my homeboy! 🙂 I think he’s the first (or second? I’m not sure) international cricketer from Kerala and for him to do so well, sniff just makes me feel so proud. You know they actually named a street after him? I’ll try to find it when I go this summer. MUAHAHAHA…
ANNA, I’ll be the first one to admit that I’m probably obsessed with cricket too much for my own good, but I’ve also gotten my (American) friends to be genuinely interested in cricket and even got them to play it! They asked to!!! Anyway, Sachin rules all! Did I mention I know a guy in my neighborhood in Kerala named Sachin? We play cricket together 🙂
Oh, sweet, innocent A N N A. Don’t you know never to look at the YouTube comments? YouTube comments collectively represent the lowest expression of humanity ever assembled. Thousands of years from now, when we destroy ourselves with plague and nuclear bombs, alien species will find remnants of YouTube comment threads and thank their strange green gods that we nuked ourselves out of existence.