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.
by the way, let’s not get our hip hop lingo mixed up shall we? Sreesanth is no b-boy. Unlike this brilliant man.
Holy mother of…
I just spent the last week at the test matches so I could quietly drink martinis and smoke cigarettes while the Paki/Windies played. At least I think they were test matches. Or something. There was vodka involved, that’s all I know.
Um, this may be a silly question, but I don’t know what this means.
Hardly silly– neither do I.
Pachanga!
Dhoom machale? Literally ‘Have a Blast’. Tagline from Bollywood heist/adventure/action movie series ‘Dhoom’ (Think Mission Impossible, with songs and dances, and lots of far far hotter ppl). D2 just got released in late November.
I’m sure there are clips on youtube from both Dhoom and Dhoom 2.
Oh, and the original Dhoom starred the other (half-)Mallu hotness, John Abraham, just so that ANNA knows 🙂
Eh, I’d rather have Sreesanth. Bad attitude and badder hips. Yowza. 😉
Dhoom machale roughly means “paint the town red/ dazzle everyone/ bang all the way”
Literally,
Dhoom = bang Machale = to do
Anna
Since you said you didn’t know much about cricket, I thought I’ll use a poem my dad used to recite to explain the game to me 🙂
Cricket
You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that’s in the side that’s in goes out, and when he’s out he comes in and the next man goes in until he’s out.
When they are all out, the side that’s out comes in and the side that’s been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.
When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay all out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out.
When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!
A little history: Desis have been at the receiving end from gora teams for decades. An English captain once called Indians Dull Dogs. Desi cricket fans have been fed a steady diet of crappy performances and spineless attitude from successive teams. Things started to change w/ people like Sunil Gavaskar and Imran Khan. Truly world-class players who werenÂ’t about to be cowed down by gora lip.
How big is this Shreesanth thing? India-Pakistan matches are treated like war w/out guns. Yet I watched the clip on Pakistan TV, w/ anchor gleefully narrating the incidence. The Asian cricket teams/fans show remarkable solidarity when pitted against goras.
Anna, Some Malyali cricket trivia for your enjoyment. Mumbai boy Abey Kuruvilla was the first Malyali to break nationally. He wouldÂ’ve done all Malyalis and Indians proud, if the &^$# selectors had picked him at his peak.
P.S. gora is lazy shorthand for high & mighty attitude typical of white teams from the past. England has made remarkable progress in this regard and deserve some Desi love.
Abey Kuruvilla never played for Kerala. The first Keralite who played for India (and Kerala in the domestic circuit) was Tinu Yohannan Sreesanth is the second.
Thanks for all the explanations! 😉
Brown FOB, I said “Mumbai boy” and “First Malyali“. Not Kerala player.
Lurker Auntie, that was delightful! 😀
Shodan and Brown_Fob, thanks for all the additional information. This is far more interesting than I imagined it could be. 🙂 The Mallu hook doesn’t hurt. 😉
England, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa (majority white players: goras) are traditionally known for on-field aggression in cricket (read: verbal abuses etc). All through the 70s, 80s and 90s, teams from the subcontinent were routinely abused in this gentleman’s game. Our players were often accussed of being meek as they never answered these verbal assaults. They always said that their bat/ball will do the talking and they behaved like perfect gentelmen (mostly). As fas as results are concerned, teams from the subcontinent did pretty well..(India won the WC in ’83, runners up in 2003, Pakistan won in 92 and were runners up in 99 while Sri Lanka won in 96).
These things are gradually changing now. With India bringing in 75% of the money in world cricket, we are demanding more say in the management of the game. The Indian cricket board wants to have more say in scheduling its tours, telecast deals, sponsorships etc. The goras are having hard time to digest this fact and usually try to oppose everything that the boards from subcontinent propose. India, Pak, Lanka and B’desh usually stick together in all crucial votes..and even get West Indies on their side. The Australians usually side with the British …and so does new Zealand and south Africa. In the end, it’s the money that holds the power..and usually the Indian board is able to amend the “racist” policies still followed in wordl cricket.
There have been plenty of instances where brown players have been fined for showing their displeasure to the umpires…but white players were let off without fine (or warning).
nice video.. thanks for the link..
that’s just cool on many levels but in terms of the direction of the thread, think of the most proper environment you’ve ever been at, the most high and fancy dinner party, and then somebody comments on how indian cooking smells. and then, you not only say it smells great, you bring out the most currified chicken you’ve ever made, and everyone loves it, but the host who cries in their drink that no one has touched the souffle.
on top of that, what a great shot
Neil Hirani (who posted the video in the first place) offered this description:
Yes, it’s much clearer that Nel is douchey, thanks. 🙂
Also clearer: the video itself, since I just swapped YouTube for Google. w00t!
STILL clearer: now I know what “hitting Nel for a six” means! 😀
Brown_fob, I hear ya. That little Sreesanth dance meant so much to a lot of Indians! Some comeuppance!!!!!
I can’t wait to see some of these new players with some real balls go on the next Australia tour and show those goras how to respond to sledging.
Great video 🙂
Here’s the original Dhoom theme song, performed by Thai singer Tata Young.
my favourite indian sledge was ravi shastri’s to the aussie 12th man……shastri hit the ball and stepped out of the crease to steal a run,the 12th man fielded the ball sharply and said to him, “if you fing step out of the crease i will break your fing head”…..to which shastri replied calmly, “if you could play as well as you talk you wouldnt be the f***ing 12th man”
Okay,having got that off my chest i still dont know how to react to this guy’s dance…i am all about aggression but this boy seems to be doing it all over the place….(instances from the match in question abound on the net)
this makes a nice read. 🙂
That was me with the curry chicken analogy. on second thought, its quite a stupid analogy, didn’t mean to be patronizing. I’m making chicken today so it was in my mind.
(must remember to comment less)
Awww, I liked it. 🙂
all you lovelorn hounds… here’s a tip. somebody’s birthday is coming up.
Can we have a Monty Panesar post please? This Sardar came close to being British Sports Personality of the year. Even coach Duncan Hater concedes that he’s the best finger spinner in the world.
See Red Snapper’s Dec. 14 post for latest Monty heroics. England lost though 🙁
awww, thanks Anna, well appreciated
I must have watched this video 10 times today….
The place where I least expected to see a discussion on this topic! Nice, Anna.
I almost spilled my Tea on my Cucumber Sandwich whilst watching this on TV. There was something distinctly simple and primitive about his response. This was the inner Mallu setting himself free; responding to years of condescension from Le West. I have done this dance in front of my bathroom mirror many times after whacking McGrath for consecutive, albeit imaginary, sixes. This bugger actually did it! I am beginning to admire this guy; tacky hair and all. As they say, a little talent goes a long way, if you have a bit of Mongrel in youÂ…
Shodan
Monty is one of the best things to happen in English cricket in years, and is perhaps the only redeeming feature of England’s poor Ashes show. Eight wickets in his debut Ashes test has kind of made him a national hero (he already was one — there was a national outcry when he was not selected for the first test) and I get a buzz out of seeing millions of white Englishmen and women bigging up and having a ‘keshdari’ Sikh as their national hero. There are lots of profiles about him on google news, this one was one of my recent favourites:
Panesar comes out of hiding to make history
Good news today is that he’s just been selected for his first One Day squad against the Aussies, which means he will most likely play in the World Cup in March. He’s probably done more for Indians, especially Sikhs, in Britain, in terms of acceptance, than anyone else in the last decade or more. There have been other cricketers that have played for England of Asian background, but none of them as good as Panesar. Plus Monty seems to bring out some kind of emotional reaction amongst the English public — people genuinely love him. He is charismatic, aggressive, child like in his love for the game, and best of all, he is a big wicket taker, and humble off the field. He is a superstar in the making.
Sreesanth’s mother on Rediff
“I was very worried when he did that (dance at the Wanderers), because Nel’s actions and looks are quite dangerous. So, when he called me that day, I told him not to quarrel again with Nel as he (Sreesanth) is playing in his (Nel’s) country,” she told rediff.com
Sachin Tendulkar was his first victim. Talk about doing well.
Here’s another famous cricket taunting and a come back.
As much as some people don’t like the Ozzie cricket team, you have to respect their record and Shane Warne, one of the greatest players of all time (certainly the greatest bowler ever) announced his retirement after the end of this series today.
Bishan Bedi on the news of Warne’s retirement:
monty has been picked for the odi triangular series against nz and australia, so if he proves himself in that it seems a certainty he will be in the england world cup squad.
as for warne, check out this funny tribute in the guardian.
@60:
Lets not forget KP Bhaskar or Bhaskar Pillai who played for Delhi in the late 70’s , early 80’s. He lived in the shadows of GR Vishwanath and never got an opportunity to play for India. Much like a brilliant bowler like PK Shivalkar who played for Mumbai during the same time and had to wait for one of the 4 famous spinners ( Bedi, Prasanna, Venkat and Chandrashekahr) to keel over so he would get a chance, which never really happened.
Not only do I get makeup advice from this site, but ideas for holiday presents too! I just ordered both the Illustrated History of Indian Cricket and the Picador Book of Cricket for my husband. I used to be a cricket fan in India, but half the fun of sports is talking about them afterwards, so I had to divert my attention to baseball, having no one to discuss cricket with here. Now I am woefully ignorant about the world of cricket.
The video was awesome!
I humbly request that Sepia Mutiny does regular posts all the way through the cricket World Cup in March just as you did during Germany 2006 so we can talk and gossip and discuss the matches — so much desi interest not only amongst the sub-continent teams but with the West Indies and England featuring brown players it has to be done.
All those who agree with me that it’s a good idea say so!
All those who agree with me that it’s a good idea say so!
Wholeheartedly agreed. I just found the official song on another blog.
Lots of American brownz are going; it should be a raucous, drunken, roaring good time. I am rooting in equal measure for the diasporic desis like Panesar as for the old country team.
“All those who agree with me that it’s a good idea say so!”
thumbs up!
teams such as canada, kenya (and maybe even holland and scotland) also have several players/coaches of south asian descent.
I suddenly have an ache in my heart to spend March in the islands watching cricket, it sounds like it’s going to be one hell of a party with all the desis invading, drinking Red Stripe in Jamaica, eating red snapper in Trinidad, where else? Barbados too — sunshine, cold beer, cricket, fascinating cultures and all those Trini Indian girls. Now I only have to engineer an excuse to leave work and raise the money!
“All those who agree with me that it’s a good idea say so!” SO
All those who agree with me that it’s a good idea say so!
So too.
Thanks guys, let’s have a mutiny if they refuse! Only joking. World Cup threads will be so much fun.
Red, Risible, WGIIA?, Shodan, Kush,
No need for a meta-mutiny. I am HAPPY to try and oblige, since I think I’m the only person in the bunker who would want to write posts about rockstars named Monty or Men in Blue. As long as you continue to indulge my toddler-like comprehension of the game (hey, I make up for it in heart) and guide me down the path to cricket enlightenment, I’m your girl. 🙂 I love what I’ve learned so far!
You’re the best ANNA!
I am HAPPY to try and oblige, since I think I’m the only person in the bunker who would want to write posts about rockstars named Monty or Men in Blue.
Yes! You will be the best commentator ever. We don’t NEED wonkish batting form analysis, we need rockstars, culture, and the global-brown feel of the game.
Yeah! It will be good fun. ANNA will bring the right carnival vibe. I’m already looking forward to it.
I’m the only person in the bunker who would want to write posts about rockstars
Imran Khan was the first “rockstar” brown cricketer. In his prime he had these fantastic inswingers and there some goog vids on batsmen without a clue.