11 Secret Stories Of Indian Dressing Room That Every Cricket Fan Should Know

We, as public, do not know what happens inside the dressing room of the Indian Cricket Team. Their downside, discussions, fun stories, motivation speeches, pranks are a mystery to a common man. Having said that, it is fun to know about what goes behind those doors.

Let us familiarise you with some such fascinating stories that show a different side of the members of the Indian Cricket Team:

1. Prank on Virat Kohli on his first day

On his debut match, as understood, Virat Kohli was quite nervous. Seeing this, the most notorious pranksters of the Indian Cricket Team, Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh, decided to play a prank at him. They told Virat Kohli that is a norm for new comers to go and touch Sachin Tendulkar’s feet to take him blessings and asked him to do the same. It was only upon touching Sachin’s feet that he got to know that he had been pranked.

2. Dawood Ibrahim and Kapil Dev

In the year 1987, while playing for a tournament in Sharjah, Dawood Ibrahim entered the dressing room of the Indian Cricket Team. He told them that he would gift them a car if they beat the Pakistani team in that match. To this Kapil Dev promptly replied ‘Chal Bahar Chal’ without any fear or second thoughts.

3. John Wright grabbing Sehwag’s collar

This was around that time when the Indian Cricket Team was being coached by John Wright. Virender Sehwag was out of form for a couple of matches and the coach was quite concerned about the way he has been playing. In one of the matches when Sehwag threw his wicket to a silly shot, it is heard that John Wright went up to his mate, Rahul Dravid and gave an ultimatum to himself saying, ‘if that guy gets out to a silly shot again, i will really have a go at him.’ Sehwag was later told about this ultimatum as well. However, when Sehwag again got out for a careless shot, Wright grabbed his collar and gave a piece of his mind. It was then that Sehwag improved his game which was evident in the next few matches.

4. Farokh Engineer’s to Sunil Gavaskar advice takes a wrong turn

It is dated to 1971 when Sunil Gavaskar and Farokh Engineer were playing Rest of the World team. Farokh, considering his experience and seniority told Gavaskar, ‘Don’t get out for a duck as the walk back to the pavilion is the longest you will ever experience here in Melbourne.’ The irony of it all, Farokh himself got out for a duck and all the advice went for a toss.

5. Saurav Ganguly pranked into resignation

Yuvraj Singh and Ashish Nehra once decided to play a prank on the then Indian Cricket Team Captain, Saurav Ganguly. They told him that since he had said a couple of negative things about them in the press, they would not play under his captaincy. Disappointed on hearing this, Saurav decided to resign. When Saurav got all emotional and in tears, Rahul Dravid revealed to him that it was all part of a prank that the team members were playing on him. Relieved and in a lighter mood, Saurav then chased all the team members with a bat in the dressing room.

6. Sachin’s speech Vs Sangakara’s toss episode

During toss of the World Cup Final in 2011, the call made by Sangakara was not heard by the referee and they had to do it again. The Indian fans called it cheating and the players of the Indian Cricket Team were discussing all this angrily in the dressing room. The whole atmosphere was very stressful. However, at this point Sachin intervened and gave them not only a pep talk but also motivated them by asking them to forget about the negativity and focus on their game. This all made the team and atmosphere positive otherwise the team had lost all its motivation and positivity before the match even began. Hence, Sachin played a very important role in the last match which the public had no idea about.

7. How Dhoni got trolled by Yuvraj

When Dhoni entered the Indian Cricket Team, Yuvraj started teasing him by calling him ‘Bihari’ and would often tell him that ‘hitting sixes is not a big deal, winning matches for the country is’. Appeared that Dhoni applied Yuvraj’s advice to his game after all this.

8. The impact of Sachin’s speech

Usually, as fans, we only blame the cricketers for their poor performances, and many a times for things that are out of their control. We do not bother or even take interest in their feelings or what they might be going through. In one such incident, while playing for the second match in 2003 World Cup, they ended up losing and were highly demotivated. Worried by this and to lift up their spirits, Sachin Tendulkar asked them to huddle up and gave an immensely motivating speech. That speech inspired the whole team and they reached the finals of that tournament as well.

9. How Ganguly and Tendulkar tried their best against match fixing

It was in the 90s that Sachin was felt that one of the matches was/could be fixed. He informed Saurav about this and they both took upon the responsibility to ensure that it was not fixed. Both of them scored centuries the next day and led India a comfortable win.

10. Dhoni’s retirement news

When the news of Dhoni’s retirement spread in the dressing room after the third test against Australia at the MCG in 2014, all the players got highly emotional. We got to know about the retirement a bit later, formally, however the team mates shared a very emotional moment that day.

11. Kohli and Dhawan’s ugly episode

It was a very hyped incident during the Brisbane Test when Dhawan got injured while practicing on the day prior to the match. Due to this, Kohli had to come ahead of Dhawan and he got dismissed soon. The former then lashed out at Dhawan and accused him of faking an injury. The whole incident was so hyped in the media that Dhoni had to clear it in a press conference saying that it was only blown out of proportion.

These stories and incidents tell us about what goes inside the dressing room of our cricket team. Some are fun facts whereas some are high on the emotional value, which show us a different side of the Indian Cricket Team.