Indians and cricket go together like ParleG and chai. And while we use similes and metaphors to describe the beautiful bond between us and the gentleman’s game, we might as well dig deeper and see how creative we got when we tried describing our beloved cricketers from all over the world. I’m talking about nicknames.
So, here are some of the cricketing world’s most famous nicknames!
1. Sunil Gavaskar – Little Master
The title of Little Master was associated with Sunil Gavaskar when he became the first cricketer to score 10000+ test runs and scored 34 test hundreds, world record at that time.
2. Brett Lee – Binga
The story is cute and adorable, just like Lee himself. *wink* There was a chain of an electronics store in Australia which was called Bing Lee. The name stuck, and everyone affectionately started calling Lee, Binga.
3. Sachin Tendulkar – Master Blaster
The name Master Blaster has been associated with Sachin since time immemorable. Truth be told, no one in particular actually gave this name. As the 1990s drew to a close, the name of Little Master (Which was carried forward after he beat Gavaskar’s records) began to get replaced with Master Blaster.
4. Sanat Jayasuriya – Matara Mauler
He was perhaps the most destructive batsmen Sri Lanka has ever seen. Aptly nicknamed as the ‘Matara Mauler’ could maul the best of the bowling attacks through his sheer reckless batting approach.
5. Virat Kohli – Cheeku
Kohli revealed that he got his nickname from his coach who said that Kohli resembled Cheeku Das – the rabbit from Champak comics because of his long ears and short hair.
6. Glenn McGrath – Pigeon
McGrath was named pigeon because of his light thin frame, which, he had throughout his career along with his pigeon-like legs!
7. Mahendra Singh Dhoni – Mahi
Earlier, his nickname was Mahe which is short for Mahendra. But once he gained some fame people also started calling him Mahi.
8. Adam Gilchrist – Churchie or Gilly
While ‘Gilly’ comes from his surname, the ‘Churchy’ originates from the fact he is a disciplined and religious Christian who attends Church quite often and puts that even before practice at times!
9. Ajinkya Rahane – Jinx
During their stint together for Rajasthan Royals, it was Shane Warne who named Rahane Jinx because he could not pronounce his first name. And then, Jinx it was!
10. Rohit Sharma – Shaana & Hitman
His fans call him Hitman all thanks to his tremendous batting ability, while Yuvraj Singh christened him with the name Shaana because he believes that Rohit Sharma is a ‘wise guy.’
11. Shahid Afridi – Boom Boom
It was Ravi Shastri who named Afridi ‘Boom Boom’ all thanks to his six-hitting ability.
12. Shoaib Akhtar – Rawalpindi Express
As weird and funny as it sounds, the fast-pacer was nicknamed “Rawalpindi Express” as a tribute to his hometown and fast bowling.
Which one’s your favourite?
