The practical joke on Geoff Boycott played by fellow commentator Jonathan Agnew earlier this week, is a welcome addition to the history of pranks played by cricketers on their colleagues
Clockwise from top-left: Geoff Boycott, Polly Umrigar, Salim Durani, Sourav Ganguly and Doug Walters
Earlier this week, Test Match Special commentator Jonathan Agnew played a well-publicised prank on Geoff Boycott by reading out a 'press release' from the International Cricket Council who said, as per a directive from the South African government, they have to disregard runs and wickets made by cricketers in the 1970 England vs Rest of the World series because went against the Gleneagles Agreement during the apartheid period in South African cricket.
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This meant that statistics-driven Boycott who got a hundred in the last Test of series would have one first-class century less in his impressive 151 tally. Of course, it was a joke, but Boycott endured nearly three minutes of absolute agony inflicted by Agnew.
While the great English batsman works out a way to get back at Agnew, the former England fast bowler, mid-day looks at cricket-related pranks, the victors and the victims.
Durani's tape recorder
My favourite prank story was provided to us by Sunil Gavaskar in his first book, Sunny Days. It was about Salim Durani taking a call from a Dilip Sardesai 'admirer' in his hotel room during the 1971 tour of the West Indies. The 'admirer' informs Durani that he wants to present a tape recorder to Sardesai. When told that Sardesai is out, the 'admirer' then tells Durani that he wants to present one to him too and he should come down to the hotel foyer.
Durani, dresses up, puts on his India tie and heads down. But he can't find the man, so he heads back to his room. The phone rings again. The 'admirer' apologises for not being at the foyer and requests Durani, who had changed into his shorts, to come down again.
Durani puts on his best clothes again, doesn't forget the India tie and walks down two floors to reach the foyer. When he discovers that the 'admirer' is missing again, he goes to the swimming pool and then again to the reception. Over to Gavaskar in Sunny Days: "Suddenly, a voice behind him said, 'So you want a tape recorder, huh' and, from behind a pillar, stepped out Sardesai who himself had made those calls to Salim. It was so funny that Salim himself started laughing, forgetting the trouble he had taken to dress up and come down to the reception counter twice."
When Polly was stumped
If the prank on Durani was the most popular one of the 1971 West Indies tour, the practical joke played on team manager Polly Umrigar during India's next tour of the Caribbean in 1976 is a classic. Umrigar and the team were in Georgetown where the third Test of the series got washed out. One morning, according to Gavaskar in Sunny Days, Umrigar got a call (arranged by skipper Bishan Singh Bedi) from the Indian High Commission in Guyana, asking him to come over and explain the Indian team's behaviour in the previous Test at Trinidad. Umrigar immediately went to Bedi's room and the Indian captain nearly gave it away by laughing. Umrigar claimed he didn't even have enough Guyanese currency for the taxi fare. Anyway, Umrigar and assistant manager Balu Alaganan headed to the High Commission, but Alaganan suspected it could be an All Fools Day joke. They went to the High Commission in any case and that's where they realised that it was all set up.
Dada's 'interview' blast
Sourav Ganguly's teammates decided to play a prank on him when the Indian team were in Kochi on April 1, 2005 for their one-day international against Pakistan on the morrow. The mischievous ones in the team thought up a fine way to fool Ganguly.
They conspired to get fake paper clippings made of a report in which the skipper lashed out at his team especially Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh for enjoying the good life and not working hard to up their game. Ganguly was tackled by Harbhajan in the dressing room about the so-called interview and Ganguly spent a great deal of time convincing him and the team that he had not spoken to any journalist about this.
Sourav Ganguly and Harbhajan Singh share a light moment during a training session in 2007. PIC/AFP
Yuvraj and Zaheer Khan too chimed in with his displeasure and finally Ganguly declared that if this interview was true, he would give up the India captaincy. Harbhajan said on comedian Vikram Sathaye's show, What the Duck recently that he even picked up his kit bag to leave. Ganguly was finally reminded that it was an April Fool joke. Meanwhile, coach John Wright, who was already in the practice area, was left wondering as to why his team were not moving out of the dressing room.
Hobbs, the kind prankster
Sir Jack Hobbs
English batsman Sir Jack Hobbs was called The Master. He was also masterly when it came to pranks. When his visitors got up to leave, he would give them back their pen, diary and even the purse which he had pickpocketed just for fun. While sitting in the dressing room as a member of the Surrey or England batting side, it was not uncommon for him to attract the attention of a preoccupied next man in with the words, "he's out, he's out". Sometimes, the poor batsman would be down the steps before he realised that no wicket had fallen. John Arlott, the late cricket writer and broadcaster remembered how Hobbs once emptied Percy Chapman's gin and tonic which was filled in ginger beer bottles to be consumed at tea time during a Lord's Test. At the interval, Chapman duly uncorked one and sipped it only to taste the water. "That bloody, Hobbs," Chapman exclaimed. Of course, Hobbs had disappeared from the room.
Walters' empty feeling
The dressing room at the Western Australia Cricket Association ground in Perth in 1974 was lonely one for Australian batsman Doug Walters as he walked in after causing one of the most dramatic of last-ball-of-the-day heroics. Batting on 97, he hit England's Bob Willis for a six off the last ball of the second day's play. He also achieved a rare feat of scoring a ton in a session.
Walters' teammates decided not to give him a rousing welcome and stayed in the showers. Walters didn't react and that's where he won in the prank. He just opened a couple of beers and started to sip when the rest of the team ran out and embraced him.
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