Image via Indiatoday.com
The Indian team’s cricketing exploits may not be cause for much cheer but Rohit Sharma has come in for effusive praise from none other than India’s Home Minister, Shri Rajnath Singh, for his on-field spat with David Warner in Sundays’s ODI encounter. Rohit apparently gave Warner a piece of his mind in Hindi, inducing the Aussie opener to retort: ‘’Speak in English”.
“As soon as I heard about the incident,” recalled Rajnath, “I pinged Shri Shastri to tell me what happened. He kept saying Shri Rohit gave Shri Warner the full monty. Out of exasperation, I pinged Shri Rohit to send me the transcripts of his frank exchange of views and he promptly obliged. When I read it, I too couldn’t understand all of it. I think Shri Sharma was calling Shri Warner a Vada Paav or something like that but the important thing is there was no trace of that mleccha tongue, English. It was all colloquial Hindi laced with some Marathi. My chest swelled with pride after reading through it.”
Rajnath urged other cricketers to emulate Rohit and not hesitate to give back in their native tongues, whether it be Tamil or Hindi or even Bhojpuri. “Our boys try to sledge back with fake accents, using fancy words and fall short. This rubs off adversely on their performances with the bat and ball too. Doesn’t Hindi have a colorful vocabulary to borrow from? Why this mad dash to ape the Australians and their vulgar colloquialisms? If our boys take pride in their glorious indigenous traditions of sledging, believe me, the confidence and swagger will come back. Then there is no reason why we can’t bring the World Cup home,” Rajnath reasoned.
Acknowledging Rajnath’s praise, Rohit credited skipper Dhoni for instilling the right attitude in him. “Initially, I used to try and emulate Shastri bhai and Dravid bhai,” the Mumbaikar noted. “However, it took me at least 2 minutes to frame the response in English by which time I would be dismissed and to make matters worse, the Aussies would give me another colorful send off. That’s when Dhoni bhai told me to be stop pretending to be a Cuffe Parade townie and tap into my Borivalli roots. My form has improved since then. Going forward, I plan to hit back in my mother tongue Telugu too.”