Former India batsman Hemang Badani, who represented India in 40 ODIs and four Tests has recalled a hilarious incident involving Javagal Srinath and Sachin Tendulkar. Ahead of the 2002 ODI against England in Cuttack, Tendulkar found Srinath very shaky and decided to pull off a prank on him.
The Indian dressing room was a very happy place in the early days of the 2000s. The likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Laxmipathy Balaji always kept the dressing room lightly.
Recently, Hemang Badani said that Javagal Srinath is normally very confident and vocal but on that day he found him very nervous. Sensing that opportunity, Tendulkar pulled off a hilarious prank on the former fast bowler. The master blaster asked Badani to switch Srinath’s trousers with his trouser in the fast bowler’s kit bag.
“For some strange reason at Cuttack, he [Srinath] was extremely nervous, extremely wobbly, which he normally isn’t, Java [Srinath] is extremely vocal and very confident in his normal self, but for some strange reason, he was a little nervous that day.”
Badani recalls a hilarious prank by Tendulkar on Srinath
“And, I wasn’t playing that game. So, what Sachin asked me to do that game was – Srinath, obviously being a 6′2, 6’3 [tall], had really long pants, and Sachin, being about 5’5, 5’6 had shorter pants.”
“To just try and lighten the mood and to make sure that Srinath got back to normalcy, during practice before the game when the match hadn’t started yet, he asked me to switch trousers. He said, ‘Take my trousers, put them in Srinath’s bag, and pull out his trousers and keep it away wherever you can, be it in your bag, be it in my bag. Just take it away,’” Badani pointed.
Since Srinath being a very focused individual, he failed to notice the prank planned on him. He further went on to bowl the first delivery of the game with Sachin’s trousers. That’s when everyone around started laughing at Javagal Srinath.
Srinath, who was into the last stage of his career didn’t get distracted with the prank pulled on him as he bowled brilliantly in the match, returning with figures of 1/41.
“Srinath being Srinath doesn’t even care. He finishes his practice, gets back to the dressing room, puts his trousers on, gets on the field, bowls the first ball, and there are people laughing on the field. The Indian side is laughing on the field, and little does he realise what’s happened.” recalled Badani.
“Then someone points at his trousers and said, ‘Sri, look at your trousers, they’re so short!’ That’s when he realises that something is on, and something is wrong. Actually, what has happened after that is, because of this banter and lighter moment, he gets back to being normal and bowls a brilliant spell,” Badani said.