Mundane sightings of high-profile cricketers

[Smudge]

Inspired by a conversation in the NZ Domestic thread:

I was staying in Whangarei over the weekend, went to watch the test in the hotel bar for a bit, and it was me, Wags and Raval watching

You'll all be pleased to know that Wags behaved exactly as you would expect and was more focused on the test than any of his teammates. A few other ND guys came and went but Wags was there the whole time, sprawled out on the couch, even stayed there by himself for a while when all of his mates had left.

Unfortunately I couldn't sidle up alongside him when he stood up without making it weird so I couldn't get a great height assessment. Surprisingly skinny legs though.

This is awesome and there should be a thread for mundane cricketer sightings. I've seen Trent twice in the last couple of years - once at a mall the day before he should have played the Mount Test, and the other a few weeks ago at Time Zone with his boys. They had a few tokens and he would only let them purchase within their token limit, rather than the millions of franchise dollars in his bank account. I found that humourous

A friend apparently spotted Martin Guptill at a Krispy Kreme the other day. Questionable taste, IMO.

I saw Chris Martin buy an ironing board at the mall in palmy.

I saw Vusi Sibanda in line at a cafe in Canberra. Should've told him he was better than Sehwag.

We need a thread for this ****, seriously. I was in a Mount Maunganui cafe today and saw John Bracewell walk in wearing an outrageous fluoro yellow hat, then about 5 minutes later Ben Lister turned up - a lot more inconspicuously

I was tongue tied when I met Wesley Madhevere but I managed to stumble out that he needed to average 40 in test cricket or Zimbabwe were finished. I think I managed to tell Richie Ngarava he'd bowled well.

Also stammered embarrassingly when I met Nathan Smith for the first time since he became a professional. He said he remembered me but I think he was just being polite.

 

[Smudge]

I have mentioned this on here before, but 20-plus years ago, I went in to play pokies at a pub in Invercargill, the day before a Volts-Canterbury game. Chris Harris was playing two pokie machines at once.

Saw Willie Watson at the airport a year or two back.

I remember seeing Grant Elliott paying for a carpark on Lambton Quay around 2011 when he was out of favour with the national side. I wanted to tell him how great his hundred at the SCG had been and he would hopefully get another shot.

I saw the CD central gang of Tickner, Ajaz, and Young rock up to one of my favourite cafes earlier this year which was validating as I know Tickner is a massive coffee nerd. Young has a lot more tattoos than you'd think.

 

[honestbharani]

I met S Venkataraghavan just before the 1999 WC where I think he was one of the umpires. We were having board exams for 10th grade and our school takes to a temple that he frequents apparently. And he was there and moving with us through the temple. Finally as we stepped outside the temple, me and a few of my friends (all part of our school team) went to him and got his autograph and wished him luck for the WC. We asked him what he thought of India's chances and he said we had the best fast bowling attack we have ever had since 1983.

Glad we have gone from the days of Mohanty being part of what is described as our best seam attack of all time etc.

 

[SteveNZ]

This will become (already is) my favourite thread.

I think my favourite two personal mundane sightings, are as follows - both being vehicle incidents.

1) Sir Richard Hadlee almost ran me down in his haste to get away from the Lincoln Academy. I wasn't aware it was him (driving too fast to see who was at the wheel) but the numberplate SIR431 gave it away.

2) We were umpired by Billy Bowden out at North Harbour Stadium, and silly Billy overtook me - at pace, with his caricature face and name sign written on the side of the car - in the carpark. Not on the road, in the narrow carpark. This was moments after, sensing an outright win and an early finish, he'd given a direct hit runout where the batsman was basically past the stumps, not the popping crease.

 

[ma1978]

Was in an elevator in Washington DC with Steve Smith. Did a double take because I didn’t expect him there and wasn’t sure until he mentioned Watto to the person he was with. Definitely weirded him out.

 

[social]

Met a mate for some beers in his office a few years ago and his PA’s boyfriend came to pick her up

Pat Cummins

 

[turnstyle]

Belfast 2009. They were off to the Apple store.

 

[Coronis]

I need to hear a story about one of you actually interacting with them. (when not a kid hb)

 

[Daemon]

I slept with Virat Kohli

 

[Smudge]

I used to say gidday to Bradley Scott when he was working his part time job, filling the dairy foods section at New World Centre City in Dunedin in his early 20s.

 

[TheJediBrah]

A friend of mine thoughtlessly used the word "gay" to describe some guy's outfit and Ben Stokes appeared from nowhere to beat the **** out of him

 

[Molehill]

In the queue for a coffee at Mauritius Airport (June 2011) and realise I'm stood behind Steyn and Faf with their partners. Had a bit of a chat as I think I was the only one there who knew who they were. Had stopped for a few days on their way home from the IPL.

Mrs M took a big liking to Steyn!!

 

[RossTaylorsBox]

I slept with Virat Kohli

So far winning the most mundane sighting.

 

[Coronis]

In the queue for a coffee at Mauritius Airport (June 2011) and realise I'm stood behind Steyn and Faf with their partners. Had a bit of a chat as I think I was the only one there who knew who they were. Had stopped for a few days on their way home from the IPL.

Mrs M took a big liking to Steyn!!

Hey at least you knew who she was fantasising about for a while

 

[ma1978]

I need to hear a story about one of you actually interacting with them. (when not a kid hb)

I had a pint of bitter with Farokh Engineer a couple of years ago when I randomly ran into him at the bar at Old Trafford. He appreciated that someone recognised him

 

[ma1978]

Sat next to Tendulkar on a plane, He was very chatty about every topic other than cricket.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Most of my mundane sportsman sightings are of rugby players.

of cricketers… Chris Gayle, Shiv Chanderpaul and maybe Runako Morton in a hotel hallway in the Hawke’s Bay.

Matthew Hayden jaywalking outside of the SCG in 2006. Whilst on the phone, no less. Such a big unit, maybe the car would have come off worse than him if it hit him.

Or TAB cricket team nets down at Hutt Districts with a young Ravindra having the bowling machine at him for another few hours. That was probably 2008/2009-ish. I think he’d done a few you tube videos at the time. Some of us had a yarn with his dad between baskets.

My brother gave Graham Gooch and his kids a tour round his secondary school when they were due to start there. That must be a fair while ago now. I used to go to the same gym in Chelmsford with the Essex squad back in the late 90s.

 

[Coronis]

Sat next to Tendulkar on a plane, He was very chatty about every topic other than cricket.

Unsure if I believe it. But you’d expect that out of many players surely. Pleasee lets talk about something other than cricket!

 

[SteveNZ]

I need to hear a story about one of you actually interacting with them. (when not a kid hb)

I know this is show-offy but I don't really care, I hope and pray a lot of this thread becomes so.

I had a couple of beers with Doug Walters one day, he was in town to do a speaking gig at my club and the club president called me during the day to say Doug wanted someone to drink with. He should have said smoke with...holy ****, that guy never was not smoking a bunger in the 2 or so hours I was there. Light up, burn down, hardly take a breath in between puffs and story telling, apart from to take a big sip, repeat x plenty.

What a character. You give him a topic, get him going, and off he goes. Great man

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

While working on the scoreboard at my home ground for a First-class match between Barbados and Guyana I trolled sledged Tino Best, and saw that it worked.