God save me from bloody sissies!
V Ramnarayan dips into the past to write about his experiences of playing for Hyderabad Blues in foreign lands
Sriram Veera
25-Feb-2013
V Ramnarayan dips into the past to write about his experiences of playing for Hyderabad Blues in foreign lands. He talks about troubling a young David Gower and an inebriated walk with an angry Jaisimha in the middle of the night to nowhere. Read the piece in his blog Stumped.
...my performance under gruelling conditions in Penang against an RAF side, when Jai [Jaisimha] cursed me fluently after I asked to be taken off (the only time in my life), having run out of shirts and trousers, drenched in perspiration as never before or after in my career, and unable to grip the ball, the sweat simply pouring out from every pore in my body. “Stop giving me f---ing excuses! Can’t grip the ball indeed! God save me from bloody sissies!” he said. I had no option but to go on.
My final figures of 30-8-47-8 leading to a thumping win were more than adequate compensation for all the trouble, but even more pleasurable was the praise Jai dished out over a couple of drinks—again for the first time in my life, because cricketers, especially those belonging to the old school, generally don’t believe in praising you to your face.
Sriram Veera is a former staff writer at ESPNcricinfo