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The center of Maa-Ki Cricket: Saadi Dilli!

by Bored Guest

The most distinctive thing about Delhi cricket was the language. The expletives. The sheer brilliance and the inventiveness of the cursing out there in the middle. Thats why I so loved the Gambhir/Afridi spat. Watching a Delhi boy launch into an MC followed up by an MKL was a thing to behold, a flashback to the days when fast bowlers would yell out a BDL as they let go of the ball in an intra-university game.

Heck, I once saw a bowler pull a stump out of the ground and go after a batsman (no, not in a college game, in a local park game). And the less said about the Ferozeshah Kotla crowd, the better. They almost reduced Shastri to tears during an India-West Indies test and turned my ears blue in the process. Nice. Sledging your own team? Was it because he was a Mumbaikar? No, just because he was a boring bat. But the cursing tradition ensured that all the Delhi boys knew that it had to be one of them that would go toe-to-toe with the Pakistani lads when it came to handing out the BCs.

Many years ago, Jaspal Singh, a young fast bowler and student at our college, younger brother of Gurcharan Singh, played against the 1986-87 Pakistanis in a tour game. When he returned to college, we all clustered around him eagerly to ask him how it went. He said "Kya yaar, gaali pe gaali padi match mein". And so, we asked, did he give it back? Grinning, he said, "Aur kya, sunta rehta saara time?"

Precisely. It's that Delhi mood that seems to have gotten into the current crop of lads. Perhaps they didn't go all to Delhi University. But they sure as hell learned some of those same lessons. Some, like Sreesanth, seem to have gone overboard. But the gaali-galoch of the Delhi tradition lives on.

by Samir Chopra
blogs at Eye on Cricket and Cricinfo's Different Strokes

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7 comments:

Gaurav Sethi said...

"Watching a Delhi boy launch into an MC followed up by an MKL was a thing to behold"

The MC, MKL and thing to behold in the same sentence, that is funny.

I think this story's gonna set off a lotta hardcore Maa Ki tales from Dilli and beyond. Can't get enough of it.

First SAF tour in the 90s, every man, woman and child that rushed thru JNS was joined at the hip by a "Hi Hi Shastri" Chant.

straight point said...

'abe BDK...mein tujhe nahi uss G ko gaali de rah tha...' was the response bowler got from my captain when keeper dropped the chance...while i was standing at slips...

i still remember this funny yet typical dilli cricket incident...

infact if we resort to serious inventive sledging that we are capable of...oz players will look like learning kids... :)

here's to more tmk series...

straight point said...

...and samir do check this link of previous post at bored... its no coincidence that bowler in frame is sadda dilli bowler who is abusing then wud be captain... :)

Homer said...

SP,

You have obviously not seen the second class women's compartment in Mumbai - you will revise your views on who does sledging better , Mumbai or Dilli.

And oh, you abuse in just one language or variants thereof.We encompass all of India's languages and beyond.

Cheers,

straight point said...

homer

when i refered to we i was serious not thinking on only delhites...i was thinking of over all sledging skills of team india waiting to be tapped to its optimised potential... :)

pRAFs said...

this one is from 2000,
was about 14 back then.
me and a few others guys were at the local ground waiting for the older guys to finish their match. when i got a call to fill in. apparently because one of the bowlers' girlfriend was sick of waiting at the theater and showed up at the ground. had to scuttle, the poor fella.

anyways, the opposition started well, in the 8 over game.
40 odd after 5, with a big lefty hitting everything over the short leg side boundary.
i was told to bowl the 5th.
i bowled the first one wide,
the lefty decided to sledge,"dar gaya kya bacche", not very bright, but i was 14, so it got to me.
the next one was fuller,at the stumps. he smashed it thru midwicket on one bounce.
abbe kacche limbu 25 nikalunga is over me, came from the batsman's end.
i was fuming.
his head was gonna come off next ball.
the bouncer came out next, he tried to clear his front leg,but it was quicker than he expected, hit him flush on the throat.
abe l****, ab bol kaun kaccha limbu hai.

i had already planned the next one was gonna be a slower ball, he expected another bouncer and played an ugly heave, only to spoon it to cover.
i told him to f*** off
chal katle. c****, g*** maari di na kacche limbu ne, followed with a few more expeletives of the lowest low.

at which point he ran at me with bat in hand, i swear i almost jizzed in my pants,. thankfully the skipper intervened and all was settled.

nothing pleases a fast bowler more than tellin a batsman to fuck right off

Samir Chopra said...

Classic stuff, Prafs!

Homer: True dat, most Mumbaikars grow up speaking four languages.