Mundane sightings of high-profile cricketers

[RossTaylorsBox]

My mate had Kohli eat at a cafe he was working at in Hamilton.

He does not give a single **** about cricket but loves India and often messages me for advice on how to talk cricket when he's over there because that's all anyone talks about the moment you mention you're a kiwi.

Thought you were talking about Kohli here up until the last bit.

 

[Line and Length]

So was he a thrower?

I gather you are referring to Lock. This was after his FC career and after he had modified his action. All looked fine.

 

[Burgey]

I don't think anyone will ever top @fredfertang's meeting Ian Chappell. One of the great interactions

 

[GoodAreasShane]

I'm about 95% sure I saw Carl Hooper in the Adelaide central markets once. Know he's lived here for years so it would kinda make sense in that respect, still was a little surprising though

 

[TheJediBrah]

Inspired by a conversation in the NZ Domestic thread:

Funnily enough I had a mundane sighting of the bloke in your profile picture (Murray from Flight of the Conchords), he was staying at a resort in Fiji with his family

 

[ma1978]

Was in a hotel business center in Dubai when the IPL was playing and the Universe Boss was at a computer. I wanted to go say hi but he was pretty scowly.

 

[Smudge]

Funnily enough I had a mundane sighting of the bloke in your profile picture (Murray from Flight of the Conchords), he was staying at a resort in Fiji with his family

Imagine that!

 

[NZTailender]

How could I forget once seeing the great Ross Taylor in a Dunedin cafe and seriously contemplated buying him a coffee but saw he had one which would've made the whole situation embarrassing for me. It was not long after his Perth epic and I regret not letting him know it was one of the best things ever.

 

[Coronis]

How could I forget once seeing the great Ross Taylor in a Dunedin cafe and seriously contemplated buying him a coffee but saw he had one which would've made the whole situation embarrassing for me. It was not long after his Perth epic and I regret not letting him know it was one of the best things ever.

Shoulda bought him a muffin or cookie

 

[SteveNZ]

Right, two more. I will post in this thread until I run out of stories or someone tells me to piss off.

1) Had the honour of playing with the great Heath Davis at an A tournament. He informed us his after hours hunting name was Hangi pants. One day he was steaming in to bowl, with a blood nose, and got a wicket. No one was keen This was a couple of years after he came back from lunch in a first class game and bowled an orange

2) Was at EPOO when Tama Canning failed to show at the crease from his overnight innings in a first class game, then either - I forget this part - either had to retire out or just made it in time in a cab straight from town in his dancing gears. In fact I'm sure it's the latter and he was out Lbw shortly after. Don't think he lasted very much longer on the scene

 

[wellAlbidarned]

How could I forget once seeing the great Ross Taylor in a Dunedin cafe and seriously contemplated buying him a coffee but saw he had one which would've made the whole situation embarrassing for me. It was not long after his Perth epic and I regret not letting him know it was one of the best things ever.

I spoke to him in Hamilton town. Said "Love your work Ross" and in the spur of the moment tried to shake his hand but he just said "Thanks man" and kept walking. Was very embarrassing and I cringed for weeks afterward but I get it, you don't want to touch random nerds hands all day for many reasons. Gave the vibes of a very normal dude who happens to be good at hitting a cricket ball and doesn't like the spotlight.

 

[Aritro]

I saw Ravi Bopara getting throwdowns at the Old Trafford nets. He was focussing on his technique against short pitched bowling and kept telling the chap with the slinger thing to dig them in faster. When he noticed I was filming him, he said, "Boss!" and shook his head at me. And then when I walked off he called out and said, "Sorry" and looked apologetic.

 

[Aritro]

Also my family went up to Darwin to watch Bangladesh's in the ODI series against Australia in 2008 and ended up getting an invite to a function held by the local Deshi community after the useless ***** got skittled for 74. The tour manager was an old family friend and he introduced us to Ashraful and told him we'd flown all the way up from Melbourne and Ashraful looked mortified and immediately said, "I'm so sorry!"

I was introduced to Mehrab Hossain jr and he was telling me it was hard to face Mitchell Johnson because he gets so much bounce. Because I had excellent social skills, I indicated that they still should have done better. At which point he gave me a look and lost all interest in the interaction.

Then after the second match, we went to a local family's house where the squad was invited to dinner. Ashraful remembered me from the first meeting and said hello. Several of the younger chaps, including 20 year old Shakib Al Hasan, were sat on the couch playing FIFA 08 with the children of the local families. They referred to the host as "Aunty".

Mortaza, Alok Kapali and a bunch of others proved themselves to be shameless chain smokers, going outside constantly to light up another ciggie and ring people back home on their mobiles.

I listened in on a conversation between a local Deshi and Mortaza in which the local guy spoke to him with the deference that Deshis show their superiors and Mortaza held court. I learned that Mortaza hates the rich people in Bangladesh and has no interest in befriending them. And that his best friend is one of the domestic helpers who works in his house. And also that he's the man of the house and he approved his sister's marriage because the suitor seemed like a good boy. And that he prefers to live in a fairly modest property because that's all you need*.

Then the conversation turned to Bangladeshi music and I was asked which bands I liked and I froze and said the name of the one band I could think of, which was Black, and Mortaza said in English, "Black? I ****ing hate black." And that was the end of that conversation.

*unsure if this was still his outlook on wealth and wealthy people after he became an Awami League minister

 

[jcas0167]

Bowden was the guest speaker at my school sports prizegiving in, I think, 1999. He started his speech by singing the song "Oh What a Night" but with altered lyrics, in order to refer to his own birth - so I guess it was

Oh what a night
Early April back in '63
etc

I just remember his whole speech making me feel very uncomfortable, I guess because he was quite a "wacky" guy who was unsuccessfully trying to be funny but instead came across as arrogant and unable to read the room.

I remember seeing Bowden at the old Left Field waterfront nightclub circa 2000. Had an absolutely stunning blonde on his arm.

When I was about 11 or 12 I spotted Matthew Maynard at a Shell Cup game at Blake Park reading the newspaper. I approached him for an autograph. He declined saying he was trying to concentrate before he went in to bat (he was next in).

 

[ashley bach]

I wonder how he managed foreplay with that finger of his.

 

[social]

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.

I used to stack supermarket shelves with the Waughs

Steve probably still has his first pay

 

[smash84]

My story is from the 1996 World Cup.

South Africa and West Indies were in Karachi and the PC hotel was packed with fans trying to catch a glimpse. We managed to squeeze in before security locked all the doors thanks to a friend of mine who was crazy fan of the cricketers and had boys from the neighborhood jump in his car and head to the hotel early morning. The WI team were having breakfast. My friend went up to a table with Curtly Ambrose and another bloke (either Keith Athurton or Jimmy Adams) and asked for their autograph. Keith Athurton politely told him that they were having breakfast and to not disturb them for now.

In the meanwhile we decided to grab a cab and head back because things were not looking very exciting. A couple of hours later the friend called my home and asked me to come over. I asked him what the big deal was. He told me that he had picked up a budding cricketer named Chanderpaul from the WI team and brought him home. I didn't believe him but since he lived 2 mins away i decided to head over to his apartment. Lo and behold, there was Chanderpual. We had a bit of a chat with him and fed him some pakistani food. Still have pics of him lying somewhere with the old fuji film album.

Now that I think back on those days, it seems surreal. I can't imagine this happening today with all the security issues in Pakistan. It was a big deal even back in the 90s though that an international cricketer would come and spend some time in your home.

 

[Chubb]

Also my family went up to Darwin to watch Bangladesh's in the ODI series against Australia in 2008 and ended up getting an invite to a function held by the local Deshi community after the useless ***** got skittled for 74. The tour manager was an old family friend and he introduced us to Ashraful and told him we'd flown all the way up from Melbourne and Ashraful looked mortified and immediately said, "I'm so sorry!"

I was introduced to Mehrab Hossain jr and he was telling me it was hard to face Mitchell Johnson because he gets so much bounce. Because I had excellent social skills, I indicated that they still should have done better. At which point he gave me a look and lost all interest in the interaction.

Then after the second match, we went to a local family's house where the squad was invited to dinner. Ashraful remembered me from the first meeting and said hello. Several of the younger chaps, including 20 year old Shakib Al Hasan, were sat on the couch playing FIFA 08 with the children of the local families. They referred to the host as "Aunty".

Mortaza, Alok Kapali and a bunch of others proved themselves to be shameless chain smokers, going outside constantly to light up another ciggie and ring people back home on their mobiles.

I listened in on a conversation between a local Deshi and Mortaza in which the local guy spoke to him with the deference that Deshis show their superiors and Mortaza held court. I learned that Mortaza hates the rich people in Bangladesh and has no interest in befriending them. And that his best friend is one of the domestic helpers who works in his house. And also that he's the man of the house and he approved his sister's marriage because the suitor seemed like a good boy. And that he prefers to live in a fairly modest property because that's all you need*.

Then the conversation turned to Bangladeshi music and I was asked which bands I liked and I froze and said the name of the one band I could think of, which was Black, and Mortaza said in English, "Black? I ****ing hate black." And that was the end of that conversation.

*unsure if this was still his outlook on wealth and wealthy people after he became an Awami League minister

I actually should have gone to a braai with the Hobart Zimbabwean community and the entire Zimbabwe team and coaches during the 2022 T20 WC, but I had to fly back to Melbourne for work. The Zimbo fans were kind enough to invite me even after discovering the random white guy sitting with them wasn't actually from Zimbabwe but an obsessive weirdo who had flown across the Bass Strait just to watch the team.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

@smash84 - would love to see those pics if you get the chance. Sounds awesome!

 

[TheJediBrah]

I wonder how he managed foreplay with that finger of his.

Would help I would have thought