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Meet S Sreesanth ~ a showman, a believer, a superstitious

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Ever seen an empty train running at full speed? even if you haven't, watch this Kerala boy run & bowl. Their is fire, pride, plenty of skill & dreams of desire, but one big thing missing ~ is body strength. It's simple physics that heavy load posses as much momentum, & that is where Sreesanth lacks..

Feb 6th 1983 Kothamangalam born simply isn't muscular enough!!

Other than that -- you'll rarely find a fast bowler so preciously pitching every ball on seam, & always hungry to indulge into a fight with the batsman. Few fast bowlers in International cricket tell themselves they're the best, but Shanthakumaran Sreesanth does it before every ball he bowls. Gopu, his nick name, will talk to himself at bowling mark, earg to relax & reside the words 'I'm the best'... then starts the empty train.

Surely Sreesanth isn't the best fast bowler in display we've in cricket arena, neither he's even India's premier fastman - but if a believer ultimately makes an achiever, we all cricket fans will witness Sreesanth's rise in coming years. For one, his idol Allan Donald - the former South Africa quicky nicknamed 'white lightning', noticed that Sree easily has the straightest wrist position while delivering ball- enabling him keep ball's seam upright all the time. His body position, bowling action & run up to the crease is almost perfect. And then, you've the typical fast bowlers attitude to go with it. Sreesanth hates the batsman while bowling, & he didn't even let Sachin Tendulkar alone when he sparked few sweet words while playing for India Green team in Challengers trophy an year ago.

There were rumours that Sreesanth intentionally missed 5 consecutive games for India, while following some astrologers words who asked him to leave cricket for a certain period in order to have a long & highly successful career after that. He used to practise with Indian team but didn't used to play the actual match. Although Sreesanth denied the allegation, you can always see him wearing different colour wrist bands & we also heared stories of him changing his name spelling..

A rare Kerala cricketer :
A state usually un-connected to rest of India, is known for its work ethics, gods, football & athletics stars, didn't quite believe in Indian selection process. Balan Pandit, they say, was one Kerala batsman so very close to playing for India in 1955-56. Then there was KN Ananthapadmanabhan, the spinner, toiling hard for 17 long years. There were also names like Jayantilal Mahendra, Ravi Achan, Suri Gopalkrishna & K Jayaraman who probably deserved a try into Indian national cricket team, but one name that finally broke the shackles was Tinu Youhanan - the fast bowler who represented India in 3 test matches..

Sreesanth, would you believe, left his club game to watch Tinu make his debut at Mohali ground. 3 years later, he himself made duleep trophy debut at same punjab stadium. Today, near his home in suburban Kochi, there's a road & a colony named after sreesanth.

Aspires to be complete all-rounder :
One time just a trivia question 'who is only Kerala bowler to have taken a hat-

trick in Ranji Trophy?', Sreesanth actually wants to turn into a complete all rounder & win matches for India. His coach, Shivkumar says - He never missed practice or a game. People used to talk about him even then, how he would one day go places. He was just so competitive. And he had basic qualities in him that no one can coach. And so obsessed with the game that he would carry a cricket ball with him everywhere as though he would hatch it - in the classroom, in the bus,to the bed.

Few career statistics of S Sreesanth :
Test match debut ; against England at Nagpur, 1 March 2005.
One dayer debut ; against Sri Lanka at Nagpur, 25 October 2005.
1st 8 tests = 37 wickets at 25.97/wkt with best bowling figure of 5/40.
1st 29 ODIs = 38 wickets at econ of 5.66 with best 6 for 55 runs.
Sreesanth has the highest test match score of 29 till date.

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