Hi Amit! this is me , Feroz, I've been looking for you for ages! ( in case you don't remember me, I'm the guy who wrote the Schadenfreude thing last year) I clicked on 23 yards recently but I only got your 2004 stuff, does this mean that from now on if I click 23 yards I can find you? I started writing again , and I send my stuff to different strokes, and Angshuman has been my favourite. When I click on Blogs will I see this random yaar there? There's wicket to wicket , Miscellaneous, Diff Strokes, but where's yours? Sorry to be so dumb about this, oh wait, I see it under Categories..ok I got it, phew, great to see you again, and lastly, do you think Dravid's illness is psychosomatic?

yours, Feroz
P.S I'm off to see Mourinho vs Wenger, I hope there's blood involved!

Who's 'Mahi'??

I guess it is because they seem to be guests all the time in our drawing rooms peeping out of the idiot boxes ! And indulging always in a conversation (one-way though) "Veeru out mat hona yaar", "Tendliya, aaj to 35th maar de", etc.
It is interesting in those old days in BC (Before Cable ) and even BD (Before Doordarshan)we would hunt for the nick-names of Star cricketers that were the giants of that era, Sunny,Vishy,Kaps, Viv,Super Cat,Kalli, etc. The one way conversation would be then too but it was more into the transistor sets & couldn't blog it. By the way two of the best nick-names, amongst others that, i remember were "Gnome" & "Arkle". An interesting one, I remember going to the great Sunil Gavaskar's in-laws' in Kanpur in the winter of 1978 as a small boy all of 12/13 to meet my hero in a party with my uncle & aunt who were invited, and I was speechless for the whole of 2 hours that we were there, the only thing i mumbled was "Sir can i have your autograph" forget about the beer, amit !!!

'Someone' doesn't yet know that whenever a 'Mahi'nder Singh Dhoni blitz is replayed on news channel it is invariably accompanied by the song 'Mahi ve' from 'KHNH'.
But Amit, I do not think they would feel too bad to realise that so many people refer to them like family.
As for abuse and such stuff - Ganguly will hardly feel any less sick to be referred by ANY name while a former Indian bowling captain declares him 'match ka mujrim' even in matches he did not play!! I personally would rather be nicknamed 'shoeman' and then be praised....

Hey Amit! That was a very interesting thought - getting one's pet names published. I believe it's something we do to show our passion for that sport. It's common to use a nickname for any famous personality. Quite often, we mention it to show off that we know the person or his field of work well. Personally, I'd be glad to have people call me by my petname as it shows their passion to know me and my gifts better ;-)

I think it is part of a lrager Indian thing of 'easy familiarity', though it does, come to think of it, exist in elsewhere- Freddie, Warney...

Here is a trivia. Does anyone know who am I refering to when I say...

1. Colonel
2. Chika
3. Jimmy

.....and now the tricky one....who was known as "Musharraf" in the current Indian team ;) ?

it is really cool and funny. make some more funny storie

oh. c'mon ami' it's just love ;)

In response to the trivia, I believe "Colonel" is Indian batsman Dilip Vengsarkar.

1. Colonel-Dilip Vengsarkar
2. Chika-K.Srikanth
3. Jimmy-M.Amarnath

In response to the trivia,

Colonel - Vengsarkar
chika - Srikanth
Jimmy - Amarnath..

Musharraf - ???????? (stumped)

Musharraf - (BALAJI) of coarse!... remember, prez. musharraf was all praise for him during india's tour to pak.

Love all the comments....its so much fun a=to read....

Ah, but the irony is that while addressing a cricketer by his nickname makes a fan feel familiar, very few cricketers have nicknames that are used by those really familiar to them.

Andrew Flintoff's wife Rachel has gone on record stating Andrew forbaden her to ever address him as Fred or Freddie, as this nickname was given and used by the media, and not by family.

Can anyone imagine Steve Waugh's wife saying, "Its time you mowed the lawn, Tugga", or Mrs Botham saying "Beefy, does my bum look big in this?"

So, in a sense, a sporting nickname is a temporary identity, an act even, for public consumption only. The moniker pretends to breed familiarity, while in truth guards the entry to the inner circle.

Oh, and Supratik, you are not alone, I went totally tongue-tied and brainless when I came face to face with Sunil Gavaskar, and I was 34, not 12 :-)

Still, better to have shaken Mr.Gavaskar's hand and be thought of as a mumbling moron by him, than not have had the chance.

Mind you, as a legendary opening batsman, he had plenty of practice at facing mentally challenged people!

This is a bit off-topic. Cos its about someone we dont yet address with familiarity or a nickname. I'll propose one though - Josh :). I've been noticing that one Joginder Sharma has been doing awfully well in Ranji (for what its worth). I missed the 3 ODIs he seems to have played for India against B'desh. Wondering if anyone has some gyan on him? he seems like he can bat a bit too and that got me wondering if he can reasonably be expected to become a better version of Agarkar in the near future?

Obviously, the team for Pakistan is all over my mind.

Well, here is the answer for that last trivia - "Musharraf. The person who got this nickname is one of my favorite sportmen, and very hard to believe that he actually got this nickname....

During is second (and last) stint as captian, Sachin was becoming increasingly frustrated with his bowlers (who were mostly from South). His conversations with the bowlers during the over were not liked by his teammates. He made them look unintelligent.

He would not talk with cricketers of other zones once the day's play was over. Only Ajay Jadeja and cricketers from West zone could talk with the captain in the evening.

Their third allegation was, Sachin was too adamant to take suggestions from other cricketers.

Hence the South lobby within the team decided to give this nickname "Musharraf" to Sachin. Like Azhar, Sachin too lost his popularity in the dressing room. When he learnt this, he decided to step down as captain. He was not enjoying captaincy, was what he told the media. But the reason behind it was, he could not cope up with the nickname-Musharraf.

With all due respect to Sachin, I believe, Sourav was much better in backing youngsters/bowlers (except for his initial outburst with Srinath), and did away with regional differences.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/4580824.stm