1. The King of Spain
During Ashley Giles’s benefit year at Warwickshire, he commissioned a couple of hundred mugs bearing his own mug and the catchy logo “Ashley Giles: King of Spin”.
An inspired error in printing the logo led to his staking an unusual claim on a Bourbon dynasty, Il Rey de España was crowned. The moniker stuck and competed with Henry Blofeld’s rather cruel (but apt) suggestion that his run up resembled a wheelie bin being trundled to the crease. The unlikely charm of both somehow fitted an enduring cricketer, who despite never winning the purists over produced match and series winning performances with the ball- often took us over the line in run chases and was one of the safest gully fielders we’ve ever had. Viva Ashley!
2. ‘Creepy’ Crawley
John Crawley was one of the best players of spin-bowling of his generation and third to Ramprakash and Hick of the great English batsman to be prolific at first class level but not to play a full part at Test level. However despite playing fewer Tests than either of the others, his Test stats were respectable in his era (1800 runs in the mid 30s, and a masterful hundred against Murali) and whenever he was in the side he was one of our toughest batsmen to dismiss.
Expected to follow Atherton from Cambridge great to England great via greatness at Lancashire, he now plies his trade as a veteran run-machine for Hants consistently scoring big on an unforgiving Rose Bowl track. I don’t think there’s any particular story associated with the nickname, I just love it.
3. Tugga and Afghanistan
Born four minutes apart, the Waugh twins started their career competing for one slot but both ended up with stratospheric careers for the baggy greens. Stephen “Tugga” Waugh was one of the great Test captains (or more uncharitably captained arguably the greatest Test side of all time) and arguably the most durable batsman of his era. His positivity as skipper, armed with Warne, McGrath, Gilchrist, Ponting and Hayden helped to accelerate the transformation of Test cricket into a faster scoring, higher-octane sport.
In the era in which they played, Tests were unarguably the blue riband format for the Aussie public- thus Mark ‘Afghanistan’ Waugh could be compared to the ‘forgotten war’ of the early 80s. If both had been starting their careers today Mark, with his explosive one-day batting, great fielding and deceptively good off-spin, would have been an ideal Twenty:20 player and their prominence might just have been reversed.
4. Aloo
“Does he not like potatoes?” This was an inspired piece of crowd sledging by an Indian fan during an ODI in Canada of all places. So incensed was the comfortably proportioned Pakistan skipper Inzamam ul-Huq that he left the field of play, threatening the fan with his bat. I’ve yet to see an other cricketer wound up by being compared to a vegetable- perhaps this could be an area where the Barmy Army might just give us an edge. I’ve often thought gangly young Indian pacer Ishant Sharma looks a little bit like an Asparagus…
5. The Shermanator
Shane Warne’s sledge from second slip to Ian Bell during the 2005 Ashes was brilliantly inventive because like all great nicknames it had a kernel of insight to it. Bell physically resembles the ginger nerd from the American Pie franchise but he was also a callow youth in that series. The Aussies would have seen his technique and potential to score runs against them, but Warne also looked into his soul and saw a scared youngster, new to the side, insecure of place (he was effectively playing at the expense of England’s best batsman at the time, Graham Thorpe) and unsure of how to approach the two greatest bowlers in cricket. Boy did it work, a class player made little impact on the series, and it took tours playing the generally less ‘in your face’ bowlers of South Asia for him to rebuild his game.
Even now, a veteran of 40-odd tests often looks worryingly insecure. You get the sense he actually works on trying to have presence at the crease. If he’s thinking about that, by definition he will be lacking. England desperately need him to flourish. If he does, he will be one of the top batsmen in the world, and we’ll need a new nickname. I’ve always thought “tinker” would be good.
During Ashley Giles’s benefit year at Warwickshire, he commissioned a couple of hundred mugs bearing his own mug and the catchy logo “Ashley Giles: King of Spin”.
An inspired error in printing the logo led to his staking an unusual claim on a Bourbon dynasty, Il Rey de España was crowned. The moniker stuck and competed with Henry Blofeld’s rather cruel (but apt) suggestion that his run up resembled a wheelie bin being trundled to the crease. The unlikely charm of both somehow fitted an enduring cricketer, who despite never winning the purists over produced match and series winning performances with the ball- often took us over the line in run chases and was one of the safest gully fielders we’ve ever had. Viva Ashley!
2. ‘Creepy’ Crawley
John Crawley was one of the best players of spin-bowling of his generation and third to Ramprakash and Hick of the great English batsman to be prolific at first class level but not to play a full part at Test level. However despite playing fewer Tests than either of the others, his Test stats were respectable in his era (1800 runs in the mid 30s, and a masterful hundred against Murali) and whenever he was in the side he was one of our toughest batsmen to dismiss.
Expected to follow Atherton from Cambridge great to England great via greatness at Lancashire, he now plies his trade as a veteran run-machine for Hants consistently scoring big on an unforgiving Rose Bowl track. I don’t think there’s any particular story associated with the nickname, I just love it.
3. Tugga and Afghanistan
Born four minutes apart, the Waugh twins started their career competing for one slot but both ended up with stratospheric careers for the baggy greens. Stephen “Tugga” Waugh was one of the great Test captains (or more uncharitably captained arguably the greatest Test side of all time) and arguably the most durable batsman of his era. His positivity as skipper, armed with Warne, McGrath, Gilchrist, Ponting and Hayden helped to accelerate the transformation of Test cricket into a faster scoring, higher-octane sport.
In the era in which they played, Tests were unarguably the blue riband format for the Aussie public- thus Mark ‘Afghanistan’ Waugh could be compared to the ‘forgotten war’ of the early 80s. If both had been starting their careers today Mark, with his explosive one-day batting, great fielding and deceptively good off-spin, would have been an ideal Twenty:20 player and their prominence might just have been reversed.
4. Aloo
“Does he not like potatoes?” This was an inspired piece of crowd sledging by an Indian fan during an ODI in Canada of all places. So incensed was the comfortably proportioned Pakistan skipper Inzamam ul-Huq that he left the field of play, threatening the fan with his bat. I’ve yet to see an other cricketer wound up by being compared to a vegetable- perhaps this could be an area where the Barmy Army might just give us an edge. I’ve often thought gangly young Indian pacer Ishant Sharma looks a little bit like an Asparagus…
5. The Shermanator
Shane Warne’s sledge from second slip to Ian Bell during the 2005 Ashes was brilliantly inventive because like all great nicknames it had a kernel of insight to it. Bell physically resembles the ginger nerd from the American Pie franchise but he was also a callow youth in that series. The Aussies would have seen his technique and potential to score runs against them, but Warne also looked into his soul and saw a scared youngster, new to the side, insecure of place (he was effectively playing at the expense of England’s best batsman at the time, Graham Thorpe) and unsure of how to approach the two greatest bowlers in cricket. Boy did it work, a class player made little impact on the series, and it took tours playing the generally less ‘in your face’ bowlers of South Asia for him to rebuild his game.
Even now, a veteran of 40-odd tests often looks worryingly insecure. You get the sense he actually works on trying to have presence at the crease. If he’s thinking about that, by definition he will be lacking. England desperately need him to flourish. If he does, he will be one of the top batsmen in the world, and we’ll need a new nickname. I’ve always thought “tinker” would be good.
2 comments:
lol. that asparagus is going to blow you away!
Inzi= Aloo, Abdur Razaq= Saag, Mohd Asif = imaan!
Great monikers! Boom Boom Afridi and Whispering Death are two of my favourites. Both are very descriptive.
I'd say the Aussies are the worst at thinking of nicknames. Mr Cricket and Pup are two of the most annoying. The only half decent one I can think of is Dizzy, and even that isn't great.
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