Pavilion Tales
Cricket Stories
Pakistan was in deep trouble when Rashid Latif came to bat in Sydney against West Indies during 1992–93 Tri Series. The scoreboard scared at 6-35. Ramiz Raja, Asif Mujtaba, Aamer Sohail, Saleem Malik, Javed Miandad and Wasim Akram went back to the pavilion. Ambrose and Simmons were literally unplayable on that day. Rashid took the …
A double toss in the Ashes might sound absurd, however, it happened during the third Ashes Test at Trent Bridge in 1993. England and Australia had the choice to pick from Duke or the Reader ball. An additional toss was conducted to decide the fate of the ball. Reader ball was used in the first …
Trivia: Dilip Doshi played for Warwickshire during the early 80s. He used to come to the dressing room impeccably dressed in suit and tie. A perfect gentleman. During a rain-interrupted match against Somerset. Ian Botham decided to pull a prank on him. He took the bucket of whitener and entered at Warwickshire dressing room. Doshi was …
Trivia: The elegant Hooper was always a treat to watch. His style of batting attracted millions of cricket lovers across the globe. Growing up in Guyana was always special where many of his neighbors were of Indian descent. He enjoyed Indian dishes all along and celebrated many Indian festivities like Diwali etc. Hooper made his …
Trivia: Chris Martin is the fifth-highest Test wicket-taker (Behind Hadlee, Vettori, Southee, Boult) in New Zealand’s history. He was not an express bowler but known for his nagging line and lengths. However, more often than not his batting skills came under scrutiny. He scored second highest number of ducks (36) in Test cricket, just behind …
Trivia: Andrew Freddie Flintoff used to hang around a lot with Steve Harmison. They were the best buddies and played under Michael Vaughan’s captaincy for many years. Vaughany had outstanding people management skills. He knew the duo wanted to spend time together and made sure that they always got an adjacent room during the tours. …
Trivia: Dining at Lord’s is always special. It has one of the finest kitchens among all the cricket grounds of the world. Players love the exquisite dishes at Lord’s. During matchday, the kitchen team size can reach up to 65 including 4 chefs. Choice of food varies from team to team like England’s players are meat …
Trivia: Jhulan Goswami is the highest wicket-taker in Women’s ODI. She had not much interest in cricket till 15. Jhulan was the ball- girl during the 97-world cup final game at Eden Gardens, Calcutta. She was highly inspired after watching Belinda Clark, Debbie Hockey Cathryn Fitzpatrick, and decided to play cricket professionally. Life was not easy …
Trivia: Gilly was keen to change his strong bottom hand grip because he was losing the shape of his shots. He discussed with his batting coach Bob from Perth and as per the suggestion, Gilly put squash ball into the bottom hand of his glove. It helped to loosen the grip. Gilchrist practiced a lot …
Trivia: “Hey! teachers! leave them kids alone! All in all, it’s just another brick in the wall” – Pink Floyd Rahul Dravid is not just another brick but ‘The Wall’ of cricket. He was one of the most complete batsmen the world has ever produced. Due to his batting consistency, Dravid is also called ‘The …
Trivia: It was a rainy winter morning and Brett Lee had an appointment at Flare for the measurement of his Australian team blazer for the Under-19 tour to India. Lee reached the store at 8.30 AM, met with Richard Bowman, and completed the formalities. After three weeks, Binga received a call from Mr. Bowman and …
The MCC cricket team traveled to India under the captaincy of Arthur Gilligan and played 26 first-class matches between October 1926 and March 1927. One of the matches was played at Bombay Gymkhana between MCC and Hindus. C.K.Nayudu played a gem of an innings against Mercer, Geary, Tate, and Astill. He spent 116 minutes on …
Trivia: During a Test match at Durban, Haydos scored a century and Australia was in a commanding position. However, a massive thunderstorm hit around 4 PM. Everyone was busy packing while Haydos rushed to the hotel. He had a full quiver of boards and went straight for surfing for two and a half hours. While …
Trivia: Wriddhiman Saha aka Papali started his cricketing journey at Shaktigarh Pathagar club in Siliguri under the guidance of his father Prasanta Saha who was a renowned goalkeeper during the 70s. Wriddhiman was the first cricketer to represent India from Siliguri. As a child, he was not a prodigy, but his dedication was mind-boggling. He …
Trivia: In 1997, South Africa was playing the first Test match against Pakistan at Rawalpindi. The wicket was flat and the bowlers had a tough day on the field. Suddenly, a scream from the dressing room raised many eyebrows. It was informed to nearby officials that Jack Kallis was suffering from excruciating stomach pain. The …
Trivia: Tillakaratne Dilshan used to play tennis ball cricket in the streets of Sri Lanka where there was not much room to play at the either sides of the wickets. The situation forced him to play the ramp shot behind the wickets. During the 2009 IPL, some of the players were playing paddle sweep and …
Trivia: Have you ever wondered; what players discussed during the drinks break? The 12th Man plays a pivotal role by passing the essential messages from the dressing room to the players in the middle. Sometimes the messages from coach or captain are so crucial that it changes the entire course of the game. There was …
Back in days, it was not easy to keep the lethal quicks. The padding was not that great in keeping gloves and it was dreadful to keep the 90+ miles/hour bowlers. Keepers always tried to find out a way to protect the palm. Some even put plasticine between two pairs of chamois inners to absorb the …
Trivia: It was reported under the ‘Sporting Notes and News’ section of a British newspaper ‘Pall Mall Gazette’ on 15 January 1894 that 286 runs scored off one ball. The match was played between Western Australia and Victoria ‘scratch XI from the neighborhood’ at Bunbury. Victorians took the stance and the first ball was hit …
Trivia: Bishan Singh Bedi was a slow left-arm orthodox spinner from India. He played between 1966 and 1979 and took 266 Test wickets. Bedi was part of Indian spin quartet. The other bowlers were Erapalli Prasanna, Srinivas Venkataraghavan (both off spinners) and Bhagwat Chandrasekhar (a leg spinner). He also took 1560 First-class wickets, most by …
Trivia: Virender Sehwag had a groin injury before the T20 world cup final in 2007. Indian team management wanted him to play the match because his presence in the team would give a strong message to the opposition. However, on the match day, he was declared unfit and Yusuf Pathan replaced him. Yusuf never played …
Trivia: Ranjitsinhji was also known as Ranji, played 15 Test matches for England between 1896 and 1902. He scored 989 runs with an average of 44.95 in Test cricket. He also represented Cambridge University, and played county cricket for Sussex. Ranji scored 24692 runs, averaging 56.37 in First-Class cricket, which included 72 centuries and 109 …
Trivia: Saeed Anwar is one of the best opening batsmen Pakistan has ever produced. He played 55 Test and 247 ODI matches between 1990 and 2003. Saeed scored 4052(Test) and 8824(ODI) runs. His opening stand with Aamer Sohail paved the way for Pakistan many times. Embed from Getty Images Prank with Inzamam & Mushtaq: Saeed …
Trivia: Romesh Kaluwitharana was born on 24 November 1969 in Colombo. He played 49 Test and 189 ODI matches for Sri Lanka between 1990 and 2004. Kaluwitharana was an integral part of the world cup winning team in 1996. His aggressive opening batsmanship along with Sanath Jayasuriya during the first 15 overs, revolutionized the ODI …
Trivia: Nathan Astle was one of the most prolific run scorers in the History of kiwi cricket. He was born on 15 September 1971 at Christchurch. Astle played as an opener in ODI and batted in middle order in Test cricket. He played international cricket between 1995 and 2007 and scored 4,702 Test and 7,090 …
Trivia: Cameron Cuffy is a former West Indian medium fast bowler from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. He played 15 Test and 41 ODI matches for West Indies and took 43 and 41 wickets respectively between 1994 and 2002. He belongs to the elite height club with Joel Garner and Curtly Ambrose because of his …
Trivia: Sachin played the 200th Test match at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai against West Indies in November, 2013. It was the last Test match for the batting maestro. He finally packed his boots after serving India for 24 years. Surprisingly It was the last Test match for left-arm orthodox spinner Pragyan Ojha as well. Ojha took …
Trivia: MSD, one of the best cricketing minds in the world, packed his boots finally. Under his leadership India reached a new cricketing heights. India won T20 World Cup in 2007, ODI World Cup in 2011 and Champions Trophy in 2013 under Dhoni’s captaincy. He led India to top of the ICC Test rankings for …
Trivia: Kris Srikkanth was known for his aggressive stroke plays and flamboyant batting style. He played for India from 1981 to 1992. Once Kapil said on ‘Cricket Diaries’ that Srikkanth can’t walk straight. His teammates used to call him ‘Dadpadango’. Embed from Getty Images The Bet: In the Adelaide Oval dressing room, the lobby and …
Trivia: Viv Richards was the darling of West Indies cricket. He is still one of the most loved cricketers in Caribbean islands and admired by the entire cricketing world. During his playing days, he used to wear a tricolor wristband to support Rastafari movement. The Rastafari movement originated from Jamaica in the 1930s and later …
Trivia: Allan Border was known for his strange comments in the cricket field. Some got offended and some just ignored it. He played the game as hard as it can be. The passion was unquestionable. Here we discuss three instances of his interesting choices of words. Embed from Getty Images Don’t touch the ball: This …
Trivia: Andy Roberts was the first Antiguan to play Test cricket for the West Indies. He was part of the deadly 4 pace attacks of West Indies along with Holding, Garner and Colin Croft. Marshall later joined the troop and became one of the greatest fast bowlers ever. Roberts played 47 Test and 56 ODI …
Trivia: Gavin Rolf Larsen was best known for his economical bowling in ODI. He was part of the ‘dibbly-dobbly-wibbly-wobbly’ quartet along with Chris Harris, Willy Watson and Rod Latham. Larsen was born on September 27, 1962 at Wellington, New Zealand. He made his first-class debut for Wellington in the 1984 season and represented New Zealand …
Trivia: A sudden knock on the hotel door took Michael Vaughan by surprise. It was the day before the first Test match at Hamilton in 2008. Vaughany was at his zone and preparing for the match. He opened the door reluctantly. Steve Harmison was standing there. Steve never knocked on his door before, something must …
Trivia: Indian National team stayed at Lumley Castle, Durham during a match at Chestler-le-Street in 2002. It was a beautiful hotel that overlooked the ground. A suite was given to Indian captain Sourav Ganguly. Sourav finished his training and came back to his suit. It was a lovely suit and he was very pleased. After …
Trivia: Daryll Cullinan was the South African middle order batsman. He played 70 Test and 138 ODI matches between 1993 and 2001. He had the gift of exquisite timing of cricket ball and scored heavily all over. However, he couldn’t manage to score big in Australia. He was the youngest South African to score a …
Trivia: Bird was one of the most respected umpires in the world. His international umpiring career spanned from 1973 to 1996. Bird umpired in 66 Test matches and 69 One Day Internationals including 3 World Cup Finals. Nature Calls: Once Bird was umpiring in a test match at Old Trafford between England and West Indies. …
Trivia: Jason Gillespie scored 201* in his last Test innings against Bangladesh as a night-watchman. He was the only Test cricketer who scored a double century as a night-watchman. The match was played at Chittagong, Bangladesh on Apr 16-20, 2006. Australia won by an innings and 80 runs. Kudos to Australian think tank to send …
Trivia: Right-handed wicket-keeper batsman Alec Stewart was born on 8-4-63 and surprisingly he scored exact same runs (i.e. 8463) in Test cricket. He was the former captain of the England cricket team and played between 1989 and 2003. Embed from Getty Images References: wikipedia indiatimes Featured Image Credit: Nick Richards – CC BY-SA 2.0 (resized …
Trivia: Indian pace bowler Debashish Mohanty was the inspiration behind the logo of 1999 ICC cricket world cup. The designer studied the follow through of Mohanty and finally constructed it graphically. The multi-color strokes represent 12 playing nations across the globe. The world cup logo was designed by electing the feature of a batsman in …
Trivia: Freebies excite us always. We all crave for the free stuff. Be that in a shopping mall, online shopping or in the game of cricket. We call it extras in cricket. Extras are always helpful to provide the additional boost in final scores. Embed from Getty Images Sundries Extras are also called ‘Sundries’ in …
Trivia: Test Cricket: Billy Midwinter claimed first ever five wickets (5/78) in Test cricket against England while playing for Australia at Melbourne Cricket Ground on 15 March 1877. Embed from Getty Images ODI: Dennis Lillee claimed first ever five wickets (5/34) in ODI against Pakistan while playing for Australia at Leeds on 7 June 1975. …
Trivia: Dion Nash became the first player in the history of Test cricket to take ten wickets and score 50 runs at the Lord’s in 1994. Nash took 93 Test and 64 ODI wickets and played for New Zealand from 1992 to 2002. After cricket, he founded the skincare company ‘Triumph & Disaster’. Nash is currently …
Oh! how beautiful it is to see the earth from top of the world. Adam Parore is the only test cricketer from the cricket fraternity who can claim that.